


The Substitute

by Erulisse17



Series: Family Is What You Make It [2]
Category: Gokusen - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, High School, Marriage, Married Couple, Teacher-Student Relationship, Yakuza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-03-10 10:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 41,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3286565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erulisse17/pseuds/Erulisse17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reita thought his new teacher for 3-D was weird... until he met the substitute. Follow Yankumi and Shin's lives together through new eyes - just because they're married doesn't mean things are normal. Set post-drama, stand alone sequel to Out of the Ordinary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Meeting

**Hello All! I’m back with my second Gokusen story! If you’re new, you can read Out of the Ordinary to track Shin and Yankumi through the drama and beyond, but it’s not necessary to understand this fic. I won’t say much else except to read, enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

 

3-D thought this new teacher was weird. She looked naïve and clueless, and everyone was sure she’d faint at the sight of them, or run away at their first threats. But somehow, their rough way of speaking and tendency to fight didn’t faze her. She kept popping up unexpectedly, and making passionate speeches, and generally just weirding them all out.

But she was nothing like the substitute.

A month or two into the school year, everyone has just gotten used to how odd she was, with her mob-like phrases and the fact that she believed what they said, and even a few of them were starting to admit she wasn’t as bad as most teachers. But then one day, she didn’t show up for class.

She was normally a bit late, so they didn’t think much of it. But as the time passed, more of them started glancing at the door, wondering when she’d turn up. When the door did slide open, many turned to look, and those that didn’t were still watching from the corner of their eyes to confirm that it was Yankumi and that everything was alright.

Except it wasn’t Yankumi.

A tall, lanky man with longish hair, wearing a white shirt with a black jacket and pants walked in to 3-D’s classroom. He gave it and them a cursory glance, then closed the door, sat on the front desk, and stared fixedly at the door, ignoring them all.

The silence that had fallen lightened with curious whispers and confused looks. Reita, the unofficial leader of the class, looked up from his desk, where he had been pretending to nap (so that Yankumi wouldn’t think he was worried about her) and stared at the stranger. As much as he hated to admit it, he had almost come to rely on Yankumi’s presence and passion in fighting for them. The fact that she was gone and the stranger was here made Reita think this was somehow Mr. Jacket’s fault.

The man at the front sat up a little, as if he could sense Reita’s glare, then turned to look straight at him. When he saw Reita propping his head up on his arm, the man snorted softly, as if he was amused by something, and a ghost of a grin crossed his face before he returned to watching the door.

Reita’s fists clenched. He did not like being laughed at, especially by strangers. Scooting back his chair loudly, he started to stand with challenge in his eyes. If Mr. Jacket wanted a fight, he’d sure as hell get one.

Three things happened as Reita’s chair screeched back. An expectant silence fell over the room; the man at the front met his gaze; and his eyes flashed with their own challenge.

Reita froze. The look in the man’s eyes wasn’t amused, or superior. It was deadly serious, as if he made his living meeting challenges from people much more frightening than a high school kid. A moment passed, the man waiting to see if Reita wanted to challenge the steel in his gaze. Almost without realizing it, Reita slowly sat back down, causing a new wave of shocked whispers to echo around the room. He jerked his chin in a defiant nod, just to let Mr. Jacket know he wasn’t beaten by any means. Mr. Jacket gave his own small nod in acknowledgement, then went straight back to looking at the door.

There was hardly time for the class to wonder who the hell this stranger was and how he had gotten Reita himself to back down when the door slid open once more.

“Good morning every-” Yankumi’s overly cheerful greeting was cut short as she saw the stranger at her desk. 3-D watched the two apprehensively, waiting to see if she knew who this was.

The man’s eyes narrowed, his arms crossed, and his eyebrow lifted up in a firm glare of disapproval. As the boys stared, Yankumi paused and a look that could only be described as “Oh shit!” crossed her face.

“What are you doing here?” He asked in a deceptively calm voice.

“Um… teaching?” Yankumi answered brightly, smiling as she did when she knew she was in trouble.

“You’re supposed to be at home.” The man spoke in clipped tones, and 3-D wondered who in the world was scary enough to talk to Yankumi like that.

“But I feel fine! Really!” She responded, and from anyone else, it might have been a whine.

The eyebrow only lifted higher.

“And…” she mumbled, as if the eyebrow was a command to explain herself further. “Substitutes are hard to find.”

She didn’t say “for 3-D”, but it was clear the man heard it anyway, as he turned his scowl onto the students, who instinctively cowered.

“That aside,” he said, finally looking away from the students. “You still need to go home.”

“But if I leave, who will teach them the importance of math and studying-”

“I will.” He answered firmly. Eyes widened in shock as everyone realized he was their substitute teacher. Most subs the school convinced to teach 3-D lasted only a few hours, and it had become something like a game to see how quickly they could scare teachers off. Somehow, this guy didn’t look like he’d be that easy. The man held out his hand and beckoned to Yankumi.  “Hand over your lesson plan and go home.”

“Shin, I’m fine. I woke up feeling fit as a fiddle! Right as rain! Healthy as a horse!”

The man, who was apparently called Shin, stood and pressed his hand to her forehead. Taking a step back, he gave her another look. “You have a fever, a rather high fever, I might add, and it’s making you delusional. Now, are you walking or do you need the car?”

“I told you, I’m fine, and you don’t need to teach and I don’t need-” She was interrupted by the man taking out his phone and calling someone.

“Hello Minoru. She escaped. No, no, it’s not your fault, I saw this coming. If you could bring the car to come get her… great. Thanks.”

Yankumi looked like she was torn between pouting and pure rage. “Look, you can’t just make decisions for…” Her rant slowed as she blinked a few times, then took a staggered step sideways.

Moving faster than anyone saw, Shin leapt forward to steady her. The disapproval was gone and he instead looked extremely worried and concerned, which surprised 3-D yet again.

“ ’M fine.” She murmured into his shoulder as she half-heartedly tried to stand on her own. That was when Reita realized that this stranger might actually be right about her needing to go home.

Feeling her forehead again, Shin sighed and glanced up at the ceiling. “I really didn’t want to do this.” He grumbled softly to himself, then took hold of Yankumi’s shoulders and looked her in the eye.

“Yankumi, think of the example you’re setting.” He said, his voice suddenly falsely earnest.

Reita caught that he called her ‘Yankumi’, which he thought was odd, since it seemed like a name only students called her.

“Huh?” She blinked at him in confusion.

“If one of your students was sick, would you want him to risk his health and come to school when he was near collapsing?”

“Of course not! As their number one teacher, I’d never let them endanger themselves by ignoring… Oh.” She appeared slightly shamefaced at having out-argued herself.

“And as their number one teacher, you should set a good example for your precious students and _go_ _home_.” Shin said with a remarkable amount of control.

Heaving a loud sigh, Yankumi hung her head and admitted defeat.

“Boss?” 3-D tore their eyes away from this amazing spectacle of Yankumi actually listening to someone to see a very large man poke his head through the still open door.

“Ah, Minoru.” Shin stood as the boys in the classroom once again wondered who the hell he to have a very large and scary looking man call him ‘Boss’.

“I’m so sorry, Boss, I should have kept a better eye on her…”

“It’s alright. She just needs some sleep, and is going home right now to get it.” He cast a significant look at Yankumi. “Right?”

She mumbled something that might have been about how she wasn’t five and didn’t need keepers.

“Lesson plan?” Shin ignored her dark grumblings and held out his hand. She reached into her bag and passed over the papers before she followed the large man out.

“Hey,”

Yankumi stopped and looked back. Shin stepped towards her and pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“Don’t scare me like that again.” He chided her softly as the eyes of every boy in 3-D nearly bugged out of their heads. Was this guy somehow… _involved_ with Yankumi?

Yankumi nodded almost sheepishly, then gave him a small smile and left with Minoru.

Reita didn’t miss the tender gaze Shin gave Yankumi as she walked out. Then his eyes flashed as he turned suddenly to the class of 3-D, causing most of them to jump back in surprise (and maybe a little fear).

“All of you better remember that she was willing to endure an extremely high fever because she cares about you guys.” His glare became even sharper. “So I don’t want hear about any of you causing her trouble or hurting her feelings or any bullshit like that. Are we clear?”

Everyone gave each other unsure looks. Were they just going to sit there and take this?

“I said… Are. We. Clear?” His tone was frosty and had a very dangerous edge to it.

“Yes.” They mumbled, and some found themselves adding ‘Sir’ without realizing it.

“Good.” His voice was back to normal. “Now, if you take out your books and turn to chapter three…” Shin faced the board and picked up a piece of chalk. When he didn’t hear any books being unearthed, he paused a moment, then flashed a look over his shoulder. Suddenly, math books started appearing out of nowhere, many dusty with disuse.

Thus passed the strangest, quietest, and most focused math lesson 3-D had ever had.

When the bell rang, Shin gathered the papers, told them to study the next chapter, then left. As soon as the door shut behind him, the class burst into conversation.

“Who _was_ he?”

“How did he know Yankumi?”

“Did you see the way he looked at her?”

“Did you hear how he talked to her?”

“Dude, Reita backed down!”

“No wonder! I nearly pissed my pants when he glared at us.”

“I think he must be a bodyguard or something.”

“Why would Yankumi have a bodyguard?”

Reita sat silent as his classmates buzzed around him. He didn’t know what to make of this substitute, which unsettled him. He liked having control, having a sense of who and what people were. But Shin Whatever-His-Name-Was did not fit into any of the categories he knew, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Yankumi returned the following Monday as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“Good morning everyone!” She declared happily as she came through the door.

But instead of the class ignoring her, or giving her mumbled greetings, everyone started shouting things at her.

“Yankumi! You’re alive!”

“We thought you got kidnapped!”

“Thank God it’s not that scary guy!”

“How do you know him?”

“Are you in trouble with a gang or something?”

Paying absolutely no attention to what was said, Yankumi heard only the tone of relief all her students had.

“Aw, you missed your favorite teacher! I missed all of you too, but, no need to worry, I will be here for you always, to the very end! And we shall never perish as long as we come together and strive for-”

“We didn’t miss you.” Reita interrupted, deflating her energy. “We just thought that guy was weird.”

“Oh,” Yankumi said as his classmates gave him apprehensive looks. The scary guy had said to not hurt her feelings, after all.

But, with her usual enthusiasm, she quickly perked up. “Well, let’s see what you learned on Friday! Everyone open your books and-”

“Who was he, anyway?” Reita asked with a raised eyebrow. This time, the whole class leaned toward Yankumi, who froze while facing the chalkboard.

“He’s my… well, it depends on… I mean, I know him from…” Reaching a roadblock, she flashed a large smile and said extra loudly, “Let’s move on!”

And that was all they learned about the mysterious substitute for a while.

Until he came to rescue them.


	2. The Rescue

**Chapter 2**

**Yay! Chapter two! So, in case you were wondering, this plotline for jumps from the manga to the movie (neither necessary to understand this fic, except that the incompetent Vice Principal finally became Principal after three seasons), and then wanders off into my own Gokusen vision. This chapter ramps up a little from the first, so I hope you enjoy. Don’t forget to review!  =)**

**PS. The word for different clans in the yakuza is ‘gumi’ (pronounced goo-mi), and just sounded better than saying ‘the clan’.**

* * *

 

 

Saiga Reita found himself strangely angry with Yankumi.

Now, being angry was quite normal for Reita. He had been angry for so long, at so many people, that it was almost comforting to have such a familiar feeling to fall back on. The way adults acted around him and his friends kept up a steady stream of things to resent, and soon the tiny hope of meeting someone who wasn’t so despicable, who treated him like an actual person, grew very dim.

Until he met Yankumi.

She did all the things he wished adults would do. She didn’t write them off because of their speech or hair color. She defended them to the principal and other teachers. She believed what they said.

And it infuriated him.

He thought it’d be a relief to find someone who trusted him, who acted like she cared. It strangely just made him angrier. Every time she gave them passionate speeches about friendships or the future, his bitterness grew, because adults didn’t really talk like that, didn’t really care like that.

When the Black Skull biker gang rolled up to the high school and demanded satisfaction from Reita for beating up three of their members, he covered up his flash of fear with more anger. The universe clearly didn’t want him doing things like rescuing his friends from gangsters, and was now trying to punish him for it. Damn universe.

As the principal yelled at them, Yankumi once again stood up to defend them. She looked in their eyes and said she believed them, told the principal that it wasn’t their fault. When the principal asked if she’d take responsibility if they got in trouble again, she agreed with all the solemnity of taking an oath.

Marching back to the classroom, he reminded himself that she was all talk, that no one was stupid enough to risk their job for a bunch of high school hoodlums. As he sat down at his desk, his friends agreed, said she was faking it, said she was bluffing. But the way she said it…

Reita stood, surprising his classmates.

“Where are you going?”

“To end it.”

His friends stared at each other with wide eyes.

“That’s insane!”

“They’ll leave you half-dead!”

He paused. “I don’t want to owe her.” He said finally, then took off running.

Just in case she wasn’t lying, just in case she actually would get fired the next time the gang showed up, he’d take care of it on his own. The cynical, bitter part of him pointed out that this hope, this vague belief that she was somehow different, was only going to come back to bite him in the ass. Hopes like that always did.

“Saiga!”

_Speak of the Devil_ , he thought as Yankumi appeared before him.

“Where are you going?” She asked so sincerely, so simply, that he didn’t even try to make his tone sound calm.

“To end it with them. Like you care.” He answered, his voice cutting and sharp. Before she could do anything but blink at him, he ran past her.

He half-thought ( _half_ - _hoped_ , his mind corrected acidly) that she’d follow him, do more than shout his name and answer her phone.

“Shin, this isn’t a good time…”

_Whatever_ , he thought, falling back on his anger to smother his disappointment. _There’s your proof that she’s just like everyone else. Depending on teachers, on adults, on friends even, is weak and naïve and stupid._

As he walked into the Black Skulls hideout, he knew that the only person you could ever count on was yourself.

“You’ve got guts coming here alone.” Fujita, the leader of the biker gang, called out with a mocking smile. Reita ignored him.

“Me and you, head-to-head.”

“Head-to-head?” Fujita repeated with a smirk and raised eyebrow.

“If I win, you stay away from us and the school.”

“You guys hear that?” The other man leered as his cronies howled with laughter.

“Shut up!” Reita shouted at them.

“Sorry, but, I don’t do head-to-head fights.” Fujita answered, which seemed to be a signal for at least twenty more gang members to ride in.

Reita glanced around. He might have had a chance if it was just Fujita and his five henchmen, but he was truly outnumbered now.

_No good deed goes unpunished_ , his internal voice commented bitterly as more and more motorcycles surrounded him. He had no time for any other thoughts as the assault began.

Despite getting slammed into a wall, kicked in the ribs, and punched in the face, he tried to give as good as he got. He knocked out at least two of them, but getting swung around by a chain across his windpipe hampered him pretty significantly. Once someone added a second chain around his neck, it was all he could do to make sure he didn’t choke or pass out. Fujita finally decided to get his hands dirty, and motioned for his minion to hand him one of the metal pipes.

The thought that he might actually die here finally made it into his pain-addled brain as Fujita raised the pipe above his head. But suddenly, a loud thud came from the other side of the wall. A few seconds passed, and then there was another one. Dropping him unceremoniously to the ground, the gang members moved towards the wall, clutching their pipes suspiciously.

As he was trying to muster the strength to get up, the entire wall exploded. Gangsters were thrown backwards, and a thick layer of dust rolled in.

“Give me back my precious student.” An otherworldly voice commanded through the haze. Reita blinked in shock. That voice sounded like…

“Who the hell are you?”

“ _I_ am his homeroom teacher.” The ghostly figure answered.

Fujita looked almost comically confused. “Teacher?”

Reita’s eyes widened as the shadow walked through the dust to reveal Yankumi. She came. She actually came. It might have been the amount of dust he inhaled, or the amount of pain he was in, but he was having a hard time believing that someone had come for him. No one had ever done that before.

Her eyes flicked from the collapsed Reita to the group of bikers.

“Going up against a lone high school kid and ganging up on him is pretty pathetic.” Yankumi commented casually as Reita stared. _Is she insane? She doesn’t stand a chance, and yet she’s deliberately baiting them. Oh God, this isn’t going to end well._

Fujita and his men reached behind them to pick their pipes back up.

“We taught him a lesson. You have a bad attitude, and you get what you deserve. It’s just common sense.”

She laughed – _laughed_ – at them. “How is that common sense?” Suddenly, her voice changed and her eyes flashed. “Don’t run your mouth when pathetic guys like you don’t even understand it!”

“What did you say?” He asked, and Reita tried to call out to tell her it was a distraction, but before he even drew a breath, she whipped around and swept the legs of the guy coming up behind her.

“If you don’t understand it after what I just said,” She answered, continuing the conversation as though nothing had happened. “I’ll fight you. Let me tell you though, I don’t go easy when it comes to protecting my precious students.”

Fujita swung his pipe at her once, twice, then stopped as the full force of Yankumi’s open palm hit him in the chest. He fell over, and his henchmen tried to swarm over her. Reita gaped as she danced out of the way of pipes, flung her arms out to take down guys two at a time, kicked knees, delivered punches, and generally made it look easy.

Reita watched in awe as she gradually reduced the population of standing gangsters. She worked her way through them until only a dozen or so were left. Suddenly, the warm flush of victory grew cold as a steel pipe was pressed against his head.

“Oi, teacher!” Fujita called, drawing Yankumi’s attention to the fact that Reita was not in a great position. “You’re here to protect your precious student, right?” He mocked, then twisted the pipe a little so that Reita’s head got shoved against the concrete, causing an involuntary noise of pain.

Yankumi stopped where she was, still trapping three different men in joint locks.

“You fight back at all, and I will smash his head in.” Fujita growled, putting more pressure on Reita’s temple to drive his point home.

Reita tried to kick him, to move, to do anything, because it was one thing to come in and beat everyone up for someone else, but it was another thing entirely to allow yourself to get beat up for a kid. Yankumi may have fought for him, but he was damn sure she wasn’t going to get hurt for him. He didn’t even blame her that much for it. It was the smart thing to do, to just look out for Number One.

Which is why the sound of a punch connecting with her face shocked him.

She took the hit. She saw it coming, but took it anyway. As he stared in disbelief, the men she had joint locked started taking turns kneeing her in the stomach, kicking her legs, and punching her cheeks. There were small sounds of impact, but otherwise she stayed silent, absorbing more attacks than Reita thought humanly possible.

Finally, Fujita handed the pipe trapping Reita’s head to someone else, and landed a roundhouse kick in her stomach, knocking her back onto her knees. Glancing at his minions and laughing, he walked over and geared up to kick her in the face. Reita closed his eyes and turned away, unable to watch. There was a sickly thud, and then a masculine groan of pain.

_Wait…_

Reita looked back and saw the most unlikely of people standing in front of the kneeling Yankumi, glaring at the fallen Fujita. The substitute. Shin What’s-His-Name.

_What the hell is going on?_

The substitute raised his head, and Reita had never seen such a look from anyone in his life.

“Next one to touch her, dies.” He announced in a deadly voice.

The assorted gang members looked at each other, most wondering what to do, some wondering who this guy was, and a few wondering where the hell he came from.

A few brave souls answered the first question by charging at Shin with pipes raised. Reita had thought he was all out of being surprised, but apparently he was wrong. While Yankumi was all about strength and technique, Shin was all about speed. He blazed through the first three men, then started knocking heads together. He elbowed stomachs and kneed faces. It only took a few more gang members to fall over before the rest decided to scram. The guy holding the pipe to Reita’s head dropped it and ran off with everyone else.

Partially obscured by a fallen motorbike, Reita watched as Shin scanned the garage a few times, making sure there were no more potential threats. As soon as he confirmed they were all gone, his calm expression immediately became panicked as he knelt next to Yankumi.

“Yankumi? Kumiko? Answer me, dammit!”

A low groan, followed by, “Shin?” in a very confused voice caused both Shin and Reita to feel waves of relief.

Shin slowly let a breath out. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m – dammit! Where are those bastards? Using my precious student against me! I’ll show-”

“They’re gone.”

“Oh. Well, alright then.” She tried to stand, then was met by a very angry looking Shin.

“May I just ask,” he spoke with admirable control. “What the hell you thought you were doing?”

She blinked at him. “Rescuing my precious student.” Her tone sounded as if Shin was asking a very obvious question.

“From the Black Skulls? _Alone?_ ” His control was starting to crack. “Do you have any idea how dangerous they are? This isn’t some group of high school drop outs. They’re involved with who-knows-what and are _not_ afraid to kill to make a point! Why the _hell_ didn’t you ask someone to come with you?”

Yankumi’s jaw set. “You know why. I can take care of myself, and I don’t want to rely on the gumi to come solve all of my-”

“ _I am not talking about the gumi!_ ” Reita would have jumped back if he had been able at the frustration in Shin’s voice.

Shin sighed and got himself back under control. “I’m talking about me. Why didn’t you ask _me_ to come with you?”

There was complete silence as Yankumi’s mouth opened and closed. “I…”

Glancing down at the ground, Shin bit his lip. “Look, I know you can take care of yourself. You know I know that. But you’re not alone anymore, okay? I want to help you, but it’s a little hard when you never ask for help.”

“I… I guess I never thought of that.” Yankumi said softly.

Shin met her gaze, then saw how bloody and bruised she was. “I take it back. You can _usually_ take care of yourself.”

“They cheated!” She retorted angrily.

He grinned. “Well, the next time they cheat, I’d like to be there to make things fair again. Alright?”

Yankumi nodded, and Shin gave her forehead a kiss and started brushing her off.

“I’m your husband, you know.”

This sudden revelation caused Reita to gasp in shock, which actually made him inhale a large amount of dust and dissolve into a coughing fit. Both Shin and Yankumi looked around for the source of noise.

“Who’s that?” Shin asked, peering around a motorbike.

“Oh, that’s Saiga. Is he alright?” Panicked, Reita decided that his best bet was to pretend to be unconscious. He closed his eyes and went limp.

Shin walked closer. “He’s the leader kid of this class, right?”

“Yeah. But he hasn’t warmed up to me at all.”

“Give it time.” Squatting down, Shin rolled Reita’s shoulder over to get a look at his face. “Cuts and bruises. Nothing too bad. Does he live near here?”

Yankumi shook her head. “He lives with his mom on the other side of the city.”

If he wasn’t working so hard to keep his eyes naturally closed, he would have shot Yankumi a look of surprise. _How does she know about that? I mean, it’s in the school record, but teachers never actually read those things._

“Great.” Shin responded sarcastically. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

“Well, we can’t just leave him here…”

“Actually we can. Probably shouldn’t, but we can. Alright, don’t give me that look.” Before Reita knew what was happening, Shin picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.

“Can you walk? I mean, I could carry both of you, but it’d go a bit slow.”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“You’d say that if a pipe was sticking out of your leg.” Shin grumbled as he shifted Reita’s limp body. “These kids get you in so much trouble.”

Reita cautiously opened one eye in time to see Yankumi raise both eyebrows at Shin.

“ _These_ kids?” She repeated with a tone of high irony.

“Hey, I was different. I only got in fights to save other people’s asses. Plus, I was your best student.”

Reita coughed in shock once again before remembering he was supposed to be unconscious. He closed his eyes just before Yankumi peered around Shin to glance at Reita.

“Are you sure he’s alright?” She asked, concerned.

“He’s fine,” Shin dismissed her worry. “A little sleep and he’ll be right as rain.”

They walked in silence for a bit, then Shin commented, “So, I guess he’s the one this year, huh?”

“What?”

“You know, the kid that finds out your whole family’s part of the yakuza.”

Reita stifled a gasp just in time. Yankumi was yakuza? He didn’t think he could handle any more surprises. What was next? They were all aliens?

“Not my whole family. Just most of it. And besides, you make it sound like there’s one every five minutes.”

“One every year, at least.”

“Now that’s not… oh. I guess so. Huh. I wonder why.”

“Because you suck at lying.”

Reita involuntarily opened his eyes as Shin skipped out of the way of Yankumi’s elbow.

“What? It’s true. You can’t lie to save your life. Although it’s hilarious when you try.”

Shin moved out of the way again, and Reita tried not to grab Shin’s waist for dear life.

“Aw, don’t be mad. You know that’s one of the reasons I love you.”

Reita saw Yankumi’s expression soften and closed his eyes when they leaned in to kiss. Just the sound of it was gross enough.

“And we’re home. I’ll put him in the spare bedroom, then come help you bandage everything up.”

“You make it sound like I’m in pieces.”

“I’m gonna be the one in pieces if Grandfather sees you like this. Go change, quick.”

After Yankumi’s footsteps faded, Reita heard heavy footfalls. “Boss?”

“Hey Minoru. Just came back from a small scuffle to save one of her students, and he’s out like a light. I’m putting him the spare room. Let Tetsu and the others know so that they don’t kill him in the morning.”

“Got it, Boss. Night.”

Shin carried him down a hallway, then dumped him gently on a futon before leaving. Reita had a thought of perhaps trying to sneak out, but he couldn’t really tell if the whole ‘kill him’ thing was serious or not. And he was really tired. Maybe just a short nap…

.

.

.

Reita woke to the sound of tea being poured out. He sat up quickly, then looked over to see Shin watching him with a perfectly calm expression.

“Morning.” He said, and passed over a cup of tea.

“…Morning.” Reita responded cautiously. He didn’t quite know the protocol for waking up in a teacher who also happens to be part of the yakuza’s house after a serious fight.

“It’s Reita, right?”

Reita nodded, a little surprised Shin went right for his first name, but he certainly wasn’t going to argue with him, considering how much damage he had done last night.

“I have a few questions for you, if that’s alright.”

Reita slowly nodded again.

“Good. So, how did you enjoy eavesdropping last night?”

Spitting out his tea, Reita stared at Shin. “I – I didn’t do any eavesdropping last night.” He sputtered.

Shin’s eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch. “I can tell the difference between actually being unconscious and faking it. But if that’s the story you’re sticking with, alright. We’ll come back to that. Next question.”

He had a feeling this question wasn’t going to be any better than the first.

“Why did you try to get my wife killed last night?” Shin spoke as if they were at a café instead of the yakuza headquarters, and the amount of careful control in his voice frightened Reita far more than any yelling.

As his stomach dropped to the floor, Reita swallowed and tried to guess if Shin was going to kill him now or later, and if he’d use a katana or just his bare hands.

“I’m waiting.” The perfectly controlled voice reminded him.

Reita cast around frantically for an answer that wouldn’t get him killed, then finally said, “I – I didn’t think she’d come.”

“Bullshit.” Shin responded calmly before taking a sip of his tea. “You wanted her to come. You wanted her to prove that she’s different from every other adult in your life.”

The fact that Shin was touching on something so… so… personal, and being so damn cavalier about it made Reita snap out of his frightened daze.

“You don’t know a damn thing about me!” He shouted, scrambling to his feet in anger.

“Of course I do. I’ve known you from the moment I saw you pretending to sleep so Yankumi wouldn’t know you were worried about her. I know that you’re angry because you don’t know how to feel any different. I know that the more trustworthy she seems, the less you want to trust her – because if you do trust her and she lets you down, it’ll hurt a hell of a lot worse than if you don’t trust anyone. And I know that you deliberately provoked her into coming after you, to see if she would, to see if she cares. Well, you want to know the truth about her? Do you?!” Shin stood up as well, voice raising, eyes flashing.

Reita waited, half-afraid of Shin, more afraid of the answer.

“She does.”

The suddenly calm tone drove home Shin’s point.

“She cares more about you than you will ever appreciate. It’s not fake, it’s not a scam, she really is that ridiculously generous. Everyone tells her that she’s naïve, gullible, and unrealistic, but she still believes the best of everyone unconditionally. And it hurts her like hell every time she’s wrong.”

Reita, stunned by this revelation, unthinkingly blurted, “Why?”

Shrugging, Shin resumed his cross-legged position on the floor. “Because she’s Yankumi.”

Sitting down as well, Reita stared uncomprehendingly.

“Because there will always be kids that adults write off, that teachers don’t give a chance, that hear they’re worthless so many times, they start to believe it. And they will always need her. Because when a complete stranger suddenly trusts you, expects good things from you, defends you, and treats you like a good guy… when someone believes in you that strongly…” Shin glanced at his tea, lost in thought, then continued, “After a while, you don’t want to let them down. You want to be the person she thinks you are.”

There was a moment of silence, then Reita couldn’t help but ask, “Is that what happened to you?”

Shin looked up with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “So you _were_ listening.”

“What – wait, I never said-”

“An inadvertent admission of guilt is still admissible in court.”

Reita frowned at him. “What are you, a lawyer?”

Poorly concealing a grin, Shin said nothing and sipped his tea.

“Wait, _are_ you a lawyer? I thought you were yakuza.”

“No one said I can’t be both.”

“But-”

“And yes.” Shin interrupted, answering his original question. “That is what happened to me.”

Reita took a moment to stare at this man who was so many impossible things at once. He was Yankumi’s husband, a lawyer, a yakuza member/boss, Yankumi’s former student, and yet he was so… sure of himself. He had an air of ease, of confidence, that Reita envied. And the way he talked about Yankumi, about how she really believed in the kids who least deserved it, he somehow got the feeling that Shin’s self-assurance stemmed from that faith.

“Shin!” Yankumi’s voice travelled down the hallway.

“Yes, dear?”

“Is Saiga still alive?”

“If he wasn’t, you’d have heard his screams.”

“You could have muffled him.”

Shin took a moment to consider this. “Good point,” he nodded to himself, then shouted back, “He’s alive.”

“Oh good. Ask him if he wants breakfast.”

Shin glanced at Reita, waiting for an answer.

“Um, sure, I guess.”

Shin’s eyebrow rose dangerously.

“I mean… yes, please.”

Nodding, Shin passed the message on, then collected the cups and stood.

“Come on, don’t want to keep her waiting.”

“Hey…” Reita voiced softly, as Shin turned expectantly. “I… I didn’t mean to put her in danger. S-sorry.”

Smiling a little, Shin nodded. “I understand. But if you ever purposefully put her in danger again, I’ll hunt you down and kill you. Are we clear?”

Reita nodded with very wide eyes, then found the courage to ask his next question.

“How do I… make it up to her?”

Shin smirked. “Because she’s so ridiculously simple, all it takes is two words.”

.

.

.

Reita walked in the classroom door the following Monday and was greeted by a chorus of shouted questions about how he was still alive and what happened and how worried they all were.

He answered questions as vaguely as he could, and finally was left to sit in peace. His mind was still reeling from the massive amount of shocks he had over the weekend, and he still had a difficult time believing that he had actually had breakfast with the leaders of the Odeo clan… and the weirdest part was that it didn’t feel weird. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it felt kind of… nice.

Just then, the door slammed open, interrupting his thoughts.

“Good morning, everyone!” Yankumi announced cheerfully as she walked in.

And instead of the usual amount of mumbles and continuing conversations, Reita took a breath and spoke the words Shin had told him to say.

“Morning, Yankumi.” He said, and tried to ignore the fact that everyone in his class was staring at him.

Yankumi was staring at him as well, but her eyes were almost teary, and a huge grin lit up her face like Christmas morning.

“Saiga… you – you called me Yankumi!”

He tried to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed. “Yeah, so?”

Her smile grew even wider.  “Alright! Everyone! Let’s following that shining sun together! Oh!”

The classroom of boys stared at her like she was crazy.

“Come on, guys! Oh!”

“Oh…” A few of them mumbled.

“Louder! You too, Saiga! Oh!”

And since he had already come this far, and could see a few poorly hidden bandages, he sighed and half-heartedly raised his fist. “Oh.”

“Everybody!”

As the rest of the class joined her enthusiastic and nonsensical  cheer, Reita thought, _She really is ridiculously simple._ He glanced at her beaming face.

_But I guess that’s not so bad._


	3. Advice

**Chapter Three – Advice**

****I’m alive!** Sorry this chapter took so long, but hopefully it pays off. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and asked for more – you really kept me writing. **

**Quick note: Like I said earlier, by now Vice Principal Sawatari has finally made it to Principal. And if you don’t remember from the drama, the students sub in ‘saru’, which means ‘monkey’, with his name Sawatari to make it Sarutari, which translates to Monkeyman, or Monkeyface – whichever you prefer.**

**Alright! Read, enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

 

Reita did his best to try and keep Yankumi out of trouble after his little talk with Shin. He really did. Thing was, it was turning out to be a lot harder than he thought.

Not that his classmates ever _meant_ to get her in trouble, but Reita had never quite realized how often his friends got into fights, or offended people on the street, or just had incredibly stupid ideas, until he tried to stop them.

He also realized that Shin was right – Yankumi cared. She cared about every kid in his class more than he thought was humanly possible. Fight with your parents? Yankumi would show up at your house and force everyone to talk it out. Teacher picking on you? She’d call him out and defend you.

But Lord help you if you were the one doing the bullying. Reita watched Yankumi punch one of the biggest guys in his class and send him flying backward, then give him a speech about how bullying is a sign of weakness, and real strength is fighting for the weak.

He watched in fascination as his friends started trusting her, depending on her, often pretending like they didn’t.  He saw guys who had grown up hating teachers, despising adults, little by little growing to care about and rely on her. Just because she was ridiculously simple, and had this unshakeable belief that they were all good people.

So, when Shin walked into the classroom a month or so after his first visit, Reita felt both relief and panic. Relief that he didn’t have to monitor Yankumi in case she decided to get herself into trouble, and panic because Shin might have heard about a few of the small incidents that had happened despite Reita’s attempts, and were really not his fault anyway.

The classroom conversations died down as the students regarded the substitute with a mix of fascination and fear. Shin looked up, saw Reita and gave him a small nod. The rest of 3-D turned with wide eyes and watched Reita return the gesture with a nod of his own.

Before the boys could figure out why these two suddenly had some kind of camaraderie, Shin unshouldered his bag and addressed the class.

“So, as you can see, I’m your substitute today. But apparently, I can’t just teach math during homeroom and leave,” Reita stifled a smile, as that sounded very much like a lecture Yankumi would give. “So here’s what we’re going to do. I will read roll call, you will answer, then I will go back to my book. You don’t disturb me, I won’t disturb you. Then, after homeroom, I will do the math lesson, and then I get to leave. Everyone clear?”

There was a scattering of nods and murmured “yes”es.

“Good. Asaka, Koji?”

After a moment of consideration, Koji raised his hand. “Here.”

Shin hid his smile quickly, but Reita still caught it. His class had decided to give this new sub a chance – something no substitute and very few teachers ever got.

As promised, as soon as Shin finished roll call, he sat in the chair at the teacher’s desk and read his book. The boys went back to their conversations and games. Soon, there was an impromptu free throw contest with the basketball hoop set up at the end of the room, with the throwing point continually moving farther and farther back. As Itsuo tossed the ball, it missed the hoop completely and instead plowed into the pile of extra chairs, sending the whole stack crashing down with a deafening clatter. Shin kept reading, but Reita saw him shake his head with a small smirk, and had a feeling Shin had been watching the whole time.

“What is going on in here?!” A voice barked out as the door slid open to reveal a very angry looking Principal. He took a look at the fallen chairs and the basketball traitorously bouncing back towards Itsuo and started shouting at all of them. “Of course! Destroying school property in a school classroom. Just what I would expect from this class of troublemake-”

“Vice Principal Monkeyman?” Shin interrupted with a disbelieving look. The boys of 3-D stared at each other. First, did Shin know the Principal? And second… Monkeyman? Why hadn’t they thought of changing _Sawa_ tari to _Saru_ tari before? It was genius!

“It’s _Principal_ Monkey- I mean, it’s Principal Sawatari now. And who are…” The Principal’s speech slowed as he took a closer look at the substitute.

_“…Sawada?”_ The Principal asked in utter shock as he stared at Shin.

A few of the faster minds in 3-D realized that Yankumi’s surname was _also_ Sawada, and had an impossible thought…

“W-what are you doing here?” Principal Sawatari questioned once he regained the power of speech.

“Yankumi’s not feeling well, so I told her I’d teach her math class.”

“But you’re not a math teacher!”

Shin raised an eyebrow. “I was valediction. I think I can handle high school algebra.”

“You were valedictorian in high school!”

“And law school.”

“And law-” The Principal paused. “So it’s true. You’re a lawyer now.”

Shin shrugged. “It pays the bills.”

Reita’s classmates suddenly glanced at each other. Lawyer was not the occupation they had guessed for this guy.

“And it’s true that you and… that the two of you are… well, you know.”

Shin gave the Principal a completely blank stare that told Reita he enjoyed watching the former Vice Principal squirm.

“I’m sorry, that the two of us are…?”

“You know,” Sawatari started making hand gestures, then realized that they could be mistaken for something that he wasn’t trying to describe and blushed furiously. While enjoying the Principal’s discomfort, both fast and slow minds in 3-D were starting to put pieces together now.

Glancing around, and noticing that all twenty-eight boys were watching very closely, Sawatari leaned in towards Shin and whispered in a tone that carried across the room, “… _married_.”

Reita counted at least five boys who fell out of their chairs in shock.

“Of course.” Shin answered as if every member of 3-D wasn’t gaping at him with their mouths open. “We sent you an invitation.”

“Oh, yes, of course. I mean, yes, you did.”

“I believe you never responded, but we did save a seat for you. It was a lovely ceremony.”

“N-no, I’m sure it was. I couldn’t attend due to matters of… business. And getting back to the point,” Sawatari changed subjects as quick as he could in order to get out of that potential conversational quagmire. “If you’re not an authorized teacher, I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Shin nodded thoughtfully. “You could. Of course, that would mean that you have to go upstairs and call in a real substitute, which would cost money, and find one unaware of 3-D’s reputation, which might take some time, send them down here where they might not be able to manage this specific classroom environment.” He rose during his speech and started circling Principal Sawatari, who was growing more worried by the minute.

“Or…” Sawatari’s eyes filled with hope at an alternative. “You could let me teach from the original teacher’s lesson plan for free (for now, at least), save yourself time, money, and stress, and allow me to teach math that these boys will actually pay attention to.”

The Principal scoffed. “Pfft. These kids don’t pay attention to anything.”

Shin’s gaze hardened, and he reached out his hand toward the class, and snapped his fingers. Instinctively, the boys sat down and sat up straight, staring at Shin attentively.

With a smirk, Shin motioned to the class and asked, “Are you sure about that?”

Sawatari gawked for a moment, then turned, nodded, mumbled something about Shin staying as long as he liked, and left hurriedly. Shin at least waited until the door closed to smirk openly, then sat back down and returned to his book to the amazed stares of the students of 3-D, some of which were bordering on hero worship.

“Um, sir?” Tawara, another one of Reita’s group, raised his hand hesitantly.

“Yes?” Shin asked, trying to hide how flattering being called ‘sir’ felt.

“So, are you and Yankumi really… married?”

With a small smile, Shin nodded. “Yes we are.”

There was a bit of a pause, then Koji looked at his friends and back to Shin. “Seriously?” He asked in a mix of confusion and disbelief.

Shin’s face suddenly adopted a very carefully blank expression. “Is that somehow hard to believe?” He responded frostily.

A quick chorus of “no, sir”s made its way around the room.

“Good.” A smile broke the serious look, and Shin turned to the board as the bell rang. “Alright. Math books, chapter five.”

He didn’t even need to look over his shoulder to know that the math books were emerging from desks. He grinned, and started writing the first equation on the board.

.

.

.

Shin returned the next day, and the day after that. Not that the class minded, since he was, without a doubt, the most interesting substitute they had ever had, but they were starting to miss Yankumi a bit.

“Yankumi still sick?” Tawara asked as Shin finished roll call.

“Yeah, that flu bug is really getting to her.”

“It’s weird, I thought she was superhuman or something.”

“You’re not the only one. She thinks she can beat illnesses by sheer will. And oddly enough, she usually can.”

Koji, a large boy who was constantly eating, commented around the huge donut he was chewing, “Mehba ee’s egnan.”

“Swallow first, Koji.” Reita responded without raising his head.

Koji finished his bite and repeated, “Maybe she’s pregnant.”

Laughter ensued everyone had processed the thought, and realized that the idea of Yankumi having a kid was utterly impossible and hilarious. Even Reita looked up and smiled – until he saw Shin’s reaction. The man was white as a sheet, with huge eyes glancing back and forth, as if doing math in his head. Then, without a word to anyone, he grabbed his bag and ran out.

A moment of silence passed, then the class gave a general shrug and started celebrating the unexpected free period. Reita looked after Shin thoughtfully, then pushed the thought to the back of his mind and tried to go back to sleep.

Once the school day was over, he waved goodbye to his friends and took the wandering path home. Since his mom headed to work just as he left school, it wasn’t like there was a big rush to get to the house. He took a left down a little-used street and was surprised to see Shin, of all people, pacing up and down near the benches. Approaching slowly, he could hear stressed mumbling as Shin talked to himself, then heard it slow as Shin noticed him.

“Oh. Hello, Reita.” Shin greeted him with an admirable attempt at a normal tone.

“Hi.” Reita responded, then asked uncertainly, “Are you okay?”

“What? Oh, I’m fine. Just fine.” Shin nodded several times, as if to convince himself more than Reita.

“Right.” Reita said dubiously, then harkened back to the comment in the classroom. “You know, Koji never really knows what he’s talking about, and he never thinks before he speaks, so no one really pays attention to him-”

“He was right.” Shin interrupted, before sitting heavily on the bench. “She is pregnant.”

Watching Shin run his hands through his hair, Reita couldn’t help but ask, “That’s a good thing, right?”

“No, it is, it’s great. It’s a great… good thing.” Shin sighed. “But, I just… I never realized that it was… that it would mean…” He looked up at Reita. “I’m going to be a dad. And… that’s not a word I associate good things with.”

It was an interesting moment for Reita. His whole life, adults had always been almost separate beings. They always seemed to know what to do, how to do things, be that good or bad, but they were always in control. But it was this moment, when he saw Shin look as lost as he felt, that he realized adults weren’t really all that different.

“I just…” Shin continued haltingly, “I don’t want my kid to hate me.”

“I don’t think your kid will hate you.” Reita offered, joining him on the bench.

“Maybe my dad said the same thing. But I hated him. I did. I mean, things are different now, but, for the longest time, I hated him. And I told him. And just the thought of my kid saying the things I said…” He ran his hands through his hair again. “I don’t want that to happen. And I have no idea how to…” Shin attempted to articulate the rest, but fell silent.

Reita felt like Shin wasn’t even really talking to him, but just talking in order to voice his thoughts, yet decided to respond to him anyway.

“My dad left.” He said, staring firmly at his shoes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shin turn to look at him. “I was eight, and… my mom was never the same. For a while I thought it was my fault, but then I realized that he just never wanted to be a dad. So he just… left.” He took a slow breath. “And it’s not like I know anything about this, but I think if you want to be a good dad, just… be there. For your kid. I think that’s what matters, in the end.”

As Reita finished what felt like the longest speech he had ever made, he waited nervously, almost embarrassed. He was about to stand up and tell Shin to forget he ever said anything and walk away, when he heard Shin speak.

“You’re right.”

Surprised, Reita looked up to see Shin smiling ruefully. “It’s good advice. I think the world would be a bit better if more of us heard that.”

“Really?” Reita found himself saying, then tried to cover it up with, “Well, whatever.”

“Have you eaten yet?”

“What?”

“I know a great ramen place.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine, really.”

Shin looked at him with a hint of a grin. “Are you turning down my very generous dinner offer?”

Reita glanced at him, then gave in and smiled as well. “No sir.”

“I didn’t think so. Well, come on then.”

And as they headed to Kumai Ramen, Reita had a thought that if he had to grow up, becoming an adult like Shin may not be so bad.


	4. Leaving

The next few weeks were as calm as it got around 3-D and Yankumi. Reita was fairly sure he was the only student aware of her pregnancy, since her baggy tracksuits and unique personality masked any differences that having a baby might produce in a normal person.

There was one incident, most likely caused by the influx of hormones, which Reita found both funny and terrifying. Yankumi had returned to teaching, although there were days that Shin covered homeroom and Yankumi just came in for math.

“Good morning, everyone!” She declared as she entered the classroom. Reita slowly looked up from his nap, but the boys, however, didn’t pay much mind to the fact that this was the first homeroom with Yankumi in a while. Instead, everyone was much more preoccupied with the newest edition of a magazine that interviewed local young girls about what kind of guys they liked.

Yankumi blinked a few times. “Ahem,” she coughed pointedly. “Good morning, everyone!”

But the boys had gotten careless. Everyone had seen Shin as the frightening one, and Yankumi’s lower than normal energy had lulled them into a false sense of security. So, Tawara turned and shouted, “What’s so good about it?”

Taken aback, Yankumi took a moment, then responded, “Well, lots of things. For one, you get to spend time with your precious number one teacher, and you get to learn about math, and-”

“Math is stupid.” Koji mumbled around his sticky bun.

Itsuo agreed loudly. “Yeah, it’s not like we’ll ever use it in real life.”

As Reita looked up to hear whatever passionate speech Yankumi was preparing about the value of learning, he was surprised to see her fists clench and her eyes fill with rage. Apparently, this insult, which all math teachers heard multiple times throughout their careers, had come at exactly the wrong time.

“ _Of course you’ll use it in real life!_ ” Yankumi bellowed, shocking the class into dropping the magazine. “What if you become a carpenter, or building contractor? How will you make measurements? What if you become a teacher? How will you grade tests? How will you shop in the grocery store? Do your taxes? Pay your bills? _Math is everywhere in real life!_ ” And with this last fervent declaration, she brought her fist down on a nearby desk, causing the legs to buckle under and the desk to come crashing onto the floor.

Unaware of her act of vandalism, Yankumi regarded the gaping class with a look of satisfaction.

“Ah, good. You’ve finally learned that when teachers speak, you pay attention. Now, onto the lesson.”

Turning to the board, she finally noticed Reita staring at her.

“Yankumi,” he whispered.

“Yes, Saiga?”

He glanced pointedly at the destroyed desk. She followed his gaze, then looked back to him, uncomprehending. Reita waited. After a few moments, she finally realized what she had done.

“Oh! Um… hehe.” She laughed nervously as she looked at her gawking students. “They, uh, don’t make these things like they used to.”

The boys, unconvinced and more than a little frightened, exchanged confused glances with each other.

“Um, Koji, you can use one of the spare desks in the back. Alright everyone! Let’s learn some math!”

And with this clever ruse, Yankumi proceeded to explain the value of x as Reita covered his eyes and shook his head.

On the way home, Reita couldn’t help but smile as he thought about the events of the day. As strange as she was, he had to admit that she was entertaining. He was so preoccupied with wondering if she had been that strong all along, or if pregnancy gave her superpowers, that it took him a moment to realize he wasn’t alone in his house.

As he heard noises coming from the back of the house, he grabbed a broom, then walked quietly down the hall. His mother’s work started an hour ago, and none of his friends knew where he lived, so the only logical assumption was that he was being robbed. Though he had no idea why someone would rob a tiny two bedroom place, or what they expected to find there.

He swung into the room with the broom held high. “Ai-yah!”

“Reita!”

He stopped. “Mom?”

“What are you doing with a broom?”

“What are you doing home?”

His mother glanced at the suitcase on her bed guiltily. “I, uh, didn’t expect you to be home from school already.” She moved over to her dresser and grabbed some more clothes.

Lowering the broom, Reita looked around. Her closet was halfway empty, and all her dresser drawers were open, with clothes spread about the room.

“Why aren’t you at work?” He asked slowly.

“Oh, well, you know, that job it… it didn’t really suit me. It was stifling, and repetitive, and very, um, restrictive, and-”

“Mom.” Reita made himself take a deep breath. “Sasaki-san had to pull a lot of favors to get you that job.”

“I know, but still, it just... it wasn’t a good fit. I just got a really bad feeling from it, and I talked to your aunt and she said that there’s lots of better jobs in Osaka, and she and uncle have an extra room, and-”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

“You’ll be alright on your own, won’t you? I mean, I’ll be just a phone call away, and you can take care of yourself, and you have the card to the account, and I’ll just stay with your aunt for a few weeks, and find a job where I can be myself.”

“Mom…”

A car honked outside. “Oh, there’s my taxi.” She zipped up her suitcase. “I’ll see you in a few weeks. Maybe a bit longer. Love you!”

She gave him a careless kiss on the cheek, and without waiting for his required response, headed for the door. She only waved at him four times as she drove away. He counted. He wasn’t sure why.

As he watched her drive away, he tried not to feel like he was eight years old again, when another car had disappeared down the road with no instructions on what he was supposed to do now.

.

.

.

“Saiga…”

He hated school. Well, not school so much as everything, including school.

“Saiga.”

But being here was better than being at home, alone. Again.

“Saiga!”

“Hmm?” He glanced up to see Yankumi looking at him pointedly.

“Can you tell me the answer?”

He shifted his gaze to the chalkboard. “4x/y.” He said aloud, then put his head back in his arm, unaware that the entire class was staring at him now. Reita never answered questions from teachers – not even from Yankumi. His friends exchanged worried glances.

“Hey, you alright?” Istuo asked him at the break.

“You can tell us if something’s wrong.” Koji offered.

Reita, however, was not in the mood for talking. Or sympathy.

“You’re what’s wrong with me. Now leave me alone.” He snapped, then walked away.

Tawara was the first to notice that not only were they watching Reita slump away, but Yankumi was frowning at his back as well.

The following Saturday, Reita reluctantly awoke to a very persistent doorbell. He tried to ignore it, but then it became a duet between loud knocks and annoying chimes. Finally, he could stand it no more and marched to the entrance.

 _“What?!”_ He bellowed as he opened the door – right into Yankumi’s face.

“Oh! Um, Saiga. I thought you’d be asleep, still.”

He glared at her. “That’s what I was trying to do until some crazy person started knocking on my door! Now what do you want?”

“Well, I was hoping to speak to your mother. Is she here?”

His mood visibly darkened.

“No.”

“Oh.” Yankumi thought about this. “Well, when will she be back? A few minutes? Hours?”

Reita was too angry and tired to lie. “Try weeks. Or months.”

His teacher blinked at him in confusion. “What?”

“She’s in Osaka, because she quit her job and went to go find a better one.”

Her eyes widened. “But who’s looking after you?”

“I’m an adult! I don’t need a babysitter!”

“But everyone needs someone to look after them.” She told him in a tone of perfect sincerity and innocence.

Before he could even fully comprehend that, she gasped in excitement as an idea struck her.

“I know!” And with no further explanation, she swept past him into his house. After glancing around, she spotted a bag that he had packed yesterday with the half-idea to go to Osaka, or Tokyo, or anywhere else but here.

“Going somewhere?” She asked curiously, gesturing at the bag.

“No.” He answered, wondering when she would get tired of bothering him and would leave to annoy someone else. Like Shin.

“Well, you are now, because you’re coming home with me!” Yankumi announced proudly, grinning from ear to ear.

Reita blinked in shock. “What?”

“C’mon! Let’s go!” With that, she grabbed his bag and headed towards the door. “Is there anything else you need?”

“What? No! I mean, I’m not-”

“Alrighty then! We’re on the road again, can’t wait to get on the road again…” Humming happily to herself, she grabbed his arm and started down the road.

She briefly paused to let him lock his door, then held his arm firmly as they boarded a bus and made their way to her neighborhood. He tried to argue with her at first, but soon gave up. Once they got to her house, cooler heads would prevail, he was sure of it. After all, letting a random kid stay overnight after a brawl was fine, but no one in their right minds would take him in for an indefinite period of time.

Little did he know that the members of the Odeo household had never really been in their right minds.

“Everyone! I’m home!” She shouted next to his ear, probably causing some permanent damage. As  heads poked out of rooms down the hall, Yankumi held up Reita by his arm like a caught fish.

“Guess who’s staying with us for a while!” As her minions cheered like they had just won the lottery, rather than gaining a freeloader, Reita noticed that she phrased it like an announcement, rather than an actual question.

Shin entered the hallway, took in Reita’s expression of frustrated chagrin and Yankumi’s victorious pose, and decided to rescue her hapless student.

“I’ll take his bag.” He offered, and did a neat grab around Yankumi’s wrist that forced it to pop open, releasing Reita’s bruised arm. Reita was annoyed to see that Yankumi didn’t even notice. _Damn, she’s strong_ , he thought as he rotated his shoulder experimentally.

Shin pointed the way to the spare room he had slept in before. As they walked, Shin gave Reita a measuring look.

“So,” he asked casually. “Staying long?”

As he thought, one question was all it took to send Reita into a full on rage.

“Does she always do that?! Just walk into people’s houses and poke her nose into business that doesn’t concern her in the slightest, and then decide that she needs to be the one to solve it? I mean, it’s not like I asked her for a place to stay, and absolutely no one asked her to come bang on my door at seven am on a Saturday.”

Reita paused. “Why did she come to my house at seven in the morning anyway?”

“She’s worried about you.”

Turning sharply, Reita stared at the taller man. “What?”

“She said that you’ve been out of sorts recently, and was worried that something happened. And yes, she does always do that.”

Reita stared at the floor. “She doesn’t need to worry,” he mumbled.

“Doesn’t matter. She worries about all of you. Every single student in every single class.” Glancing at him from the corner of his eye, Shin added. “Some people think it’s nice.”

“Well, it’s not so nice when she comes barging into your house at some ungodly hour and tries to fix your entire life.” Reita muttered sullenly.

For some reason this caused Shin to burst into laughter, which both startled and mildly offended Reita.

“It’s not funny when it happens to you.” He grumbled.

Shin gave him a particular look.

“Wait… did that happen to you?”

The man smiled in memory. “I was her student once, too,” he replied as he put down Reita’s bag and went to set up the futon.

Reita hesitantly asked, “What happened?”

Shin turned to him with an assessing look. “You really want to know?”

Reita nodded slowly.

Finding whatever he was looking for with that piercing stare, Shin began to speak in a thoughtful tone. “I was a senior in high school, and had been kicked out by my parents years before. Then Parent Teacher Conferences rolled around. None of my other teachers had really cared if my parents came or not, so I showed up alone, told Yankumi that my parents weren’t going to attend, my future was undecided, and that was the end of the discussion. I walked out before she had a chance to say anything, and thought that was that.”

Shin chuckled. “Man, was I wrong. Next thing I know, she shows up at my apartment that night, and says that she’s going to cook me dinner.” He shook his head with a smile. “She burned whatever it was to a crisp.” Thinking back, he added, “I think it was supposed to be mac and cheese or something.

“Anyway, while I was cooking the instant noodles she brought as back-up, she asked me about my family.” Shin paused. “And for some reason, I told her. I told her about what my family was like, why I had left…”

He glanced down. “I had never told anyone about that before. But she was… different. In my experience, adults made up their minds about what you should do, never mind what you say. They were always right. But Yankumi listened to me. She listened because she wanted to help.”

There was a breath of a laugh. “She _always_ wants to help.” Looking back up at Reita, he continued. “That night I realized something. It’s nice to have people who want to help you. And it’s okay to let them.”

Reita looked away and concentrated on folding his blanket.

“So, that’s my story. What’s yours?”

Still looking at the blanket, Reita took a moment, then said. “My mom left.”

He saw Shin’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Not like that,” he amended. “She left to stay with my aunt and uncle.” Even thinking about it brought up the anger and frustration from when she drove off and left him alone.

“She quit her job, because those are so easy to come by,” he explained bitterly, “and went to Osaka to find a job that let her ‘find herself’. What the hell does that even mean?”

Shin stayed quiet a moment. “Some people need a change of pace,” he offered.

“Oh no, this isn’t about the job. She’s been doing this for ages. She’d finally find a job, stay there a while, get kind of good at it, and then as soon as she was comfortable, she’d freak out.” Agitated, he started pacing. “She tried to explain it to me once. She gets scared that something bad will happen, that she’s get fired, or do something wrong, or the job will just disappear.” He waved his arms around, mocking the phrase. “And I try to tell her, every time, that it’s a job, not-”

Reita stopped, then changed was he was going to say. “Not a person.”

Shin, who Reita felt was picking up on all the things he wasn’t saying, remained in thoughtful silence.

Changing the subject, Reita sighed and asked, “So, is there any way you can distract Yankumi while I get out of here?”

Shin blinked, then laughed. “Reita, you’re her new cause. Japan falling into the ocean wouldn’t distract her.”

Reita swore softly under his breath while Shin got down a pillow.

“Everyone! Lunch’s ready!” Minoru’s voice boomed from the kitchen.

As the two started to leave the room, Shin stopped. “Take it from me,” he said finally. “Being her new cause… it’s not so bad.” He grinned, then walked past Reita out into the hall.

Waiting until Shin was a good ways ahead, Reita rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, right.”


	5. Listening

**Chapter Five - Listening**

**Alright! I’m back! And we get to do a language lesson, which we haven’t done in a while.**

**Kumicho – head of a yakuza clan**

**Yondaime – fourth in line to be the head of a yakuza clan**

**Anego – wife of a yakuza head/one of the higher-ranking members (Sakura is married to the head)**

**Aniki – Gang slang for ‘older brother’, used to refer to other members of the clan**

**Anesan – Basically the female version of ‘aniki’ and means ‘older sister’, even if not related to you.**

**Oji-san – Grandfather**

**FYI – the ladies you meet in this chapter are based on the ‘older sisters’ we see in volume 12 of the manga. Just for you bookish fans. =)**

**If you’d like to learn more about family terminology in Japan, you can visit<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology?from=Main.JapaneseSiblingTerminology>, which I found very interesting.**

**Thank you all for reading, and let me know what you think of the new chapter!**

* * *

 

Reita was running out of reasons to hate staying with Yankumi.

At first, everything was a reason to hate being there. The fact that there was never really any privacy; that everyone kept trying to nose into his business; that Minoru kept trying to help him with his homework; that Shin kept watching him with a look of stifled amusement; and that Yankumi was never ready to leave on time.

Walking to school with his teacher was bad enough, but now that he left the same time as Yankumi, he was usually late. He tried to leave before her a few times, but her minions would yell, “Wait, wait!” and Yankumi would yell, “Almost ready!” and fifteen minutes later he had to stand next to Yankumi as her grandfather struck the sparks of blessing on them. The entire household would turn out and stand on the porch and yell, “Watch your back!” and then they would finally be allowed to leave.

He did make it a point to lag behind or rush ahead so that none of his friends or classmates would see him walking to school with Yankumi. Reita shuddered to think what would happen if the other boys caught wind of his current living situation.

Yankumi wasn’t helping him keep a low profile, either. She kept calling on him in class, and bouncing up to him and his group like she belonged there. She’d say something absurd and nonsensical, like “Let’s all reach for that shining sun and rise together!”, then turn to him and ask with a huge expectant smile, “Right, Saiga?”

He tried to talk to her about it once.

“Hey, don’t act like we’re friends at school.” He told her on their way back from school.

She looked at him with wide eyes. “Why not?”

Reita blinked at her. “Because we’re not.”

She blinked back. “Why?”

“Because… you’re a teacher.”

This made her perk up for some reason. “That’s right! I’m your number one teacher, and you are my precious number one student.” She grinned and suddenly ruffled his hair.

Stunned by this gesture of childish affection, Reita stopped and let Yankumi skip ahead. He had no words to express the incredibly… odd feeling he had.

Yankumi finally realized Reita had fallen behind. She stopped and looked back.

“Something the matter, Saiga?”

He shook his head to clear it.

“Nothing. Let’s just go home.”

Taking a few steps past her, he didn’t notice Yankumi’s broad grin, or the fact that he had called the Oedo house ‘home’ for the first time.

He did notice that it got harder to hate things from that point on.

When Kuroda-san asked him how school was, it stopped sounding like he was just saying it to say something, and started to sound like he was genuinely interested.

When Minoru asked if anything exciting had happened, it felt less like he was being nosy and more like he actually wanted to know.

So, a few days after this growing revelation, Reita decided to try something.

“So, how was school today?” Kuroda asked as usual when Reita walked in.

Rather than the monosyllabic reply of “Fine,” he had used every other time, Reita took a moment and slowly answered, “It was good.”

Kuroda’s smile paused for a moment, then grew slightly. “Oh? Learn anything new?”

“I learned how to ask if someone is single in English.” He responded, then mentally cringed. That was something he would say to his friends, not an adult.

The older man threw his head back and laughed. “That’s a good thing to know.” He replied with a grin that both surprised and gratified Reita, who gradually smiled back.

“Anything exciting happen?” Minoru asked, coming in the room with some tea and juice.

“Not really.” Reita said, then noticed for the first time that Minoru’s shoulders drooped a little at his usual answer. He thought a moment, then hesitantly added. “But Yankumi smashed a desk the other day.”

Minoru’s face lit up so quickly that it startled him. “Ojou did what?” He asked with wide eyes and an expectant smile.

Reita blinked, then continued. “Yeah, she got really mad because someone had told her that we’ll never use math in real life, and then she just went crazy, and smashed a desk with one punch!”

Other yakuza members started to gather around. “One punch?” Wakamatsu repeated in amazement.

“Yeah! She was all, ‘Math is everywhere in real life!’, and then hit the desk, and the legs crumpled up like they were made of tin foil.” His audience laughed, then asked for more.

“Now wait just a minute!” Yankumi called as she entered the room. “That desk was very old, and I’m sure it had been unstable for quite some-”

“Yankumi,” Another voice interrupted, just as Reita was regretting saying anything. “Don’t even try. We all know what you can do.” Shin finished, flashing a teasing look at his wife.

Yankumi folded her arms huffily, but Reita suddenly noticed that her eyes were laughing as well, and she was fighting to keep her frown from turning up.

It was at that moment that Reita realized these people genuinely liked each other. They liked talking and teasing and listening and laughing together. And as Minoru turned to him with a beaming smile, he also realized that he was invited to join them. To talk and laugh and listen and tease with them. So he found himself grinning as well, and was more than happy to hear other stories from Kuroda-san about other things Yankumi had destroyed in her childhood.

He also realized that his room very conveniently located. It was a little far from the bathroom and kitchen, but it was right next to the porch, facing their back garden. His screen wall had a few holes in it, which he hated at first since the sunlight always shone directly in his eyes, but while the garden was nice to look at, and the birds chirping in the morning was a pleasant alarm clock, the real value of his room was in how easy it was to eavesdrop.

Now, Reita was not one to listen at doors or peek through windows, but it seemed like the back porch was where everyone went to talk about important things. He guessed that since his room had been empty for so long, everyone had forgotten that someone was staying there now. The sound of voices passed through paper walls very easily, and small holes allowed him to peek out without being seen, so it wasn’t even like he was trying to spy on people – he just happened to overhear most conversations that took place on the porch.

The first time he discovered that his room was perfectly placed for spying was the night after he had decided to try really responding to Kuroda’s and Minoru’s questions. He had just gotten settled in his futon when he heard footsteps pass by his room, continue a little ways, then stop. The floorboards creaked, and then he heard someone exhale contentedly.

Another pair of footsteps walked down the hall.

“Well, that’s a happy sigh for a change.” Shin’s voice came through Reita’s wall as the floor creaked again, settling as Shin sat down.

“Did you see him, Shin? He was smiling! A real smile!” Yankumi’s voice sounded really excited for something that trivial.

Shin laughed softly at how thrilled she was. “Yes, Kumiko, I saw.”

“I was so worried that he hated it here. He just, never said anything, and I thought that maybe I had made it worse, but I just wanted to help - he seemed so angry and lost…” Reita’s eyes shot open as he realized they were talking about him.

“You always just want to help.” Shin gently teased.

There was a bit of a pause.

“Sometimes it doesn’t help. Sometimes I try and it just makes everything worse.” Yankumi spoke very softly.

“You do help.” Shin responded, just as softly.

Reita quietly turned over and saw one moonlit shadow look at the other.

“How can you tell?” She sounded so… uncertain, so different from how she usually sounded.

“Even if the problem doesn’t go away, people can tell that you wanted to help. And sometimes, that’s what they need – to know that someone wants to help them, cares enough to help them. That’s how you help.”

He could see the smaller shadow shake her head before looking back up at the taller one. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“Obviously something pretty horrible.”

“Hey!” Reita saw her shove Shin, then come back to rest her head on his shoulder. Feeling slightly nauseated at the amount of mushiness on the other side of his wall, Reita turned back over and hoped they’d go away soon. After a few minutes of sickeningly sweet whispering in the moonlight, they finally headed back into the house, leaving Reita alone with his own thoughts.

His instinctual reaction to people talking about him was anger, but that didn’t quite work with this situation. He had never overheard people being glad he smiled. The usual overheard conversations (especially if teachers were involved) centered around how sullen he was, or how hopeless he was, or how he didn’t participate in class, or whatever. To hear people worry about if he was happy was kind of… weird.

As he drifted off to sleep, his mind made one last amendment. _Weird, but almost… nice_.

Weeks passed, and his conveniently placed room proved itself useful a few more times.

One of the most interesting instances occurred when Yankumi had a teachers’ conference after school, so Reita walked home alone. The house was empty as well, and Reita vaguely remembered Shin mentioning a meeting with another group or clan or something. Shrugging, he headed into the kitchen to fix himself a snack. He was finishing his last bite of his sandwich as he heard several footsteps trooping in. He gave himself a moment to swallow, then was about to stick his head out and say hello when he heard angry sounding voices coming from the front room.

“We should have done something!” A voice he recognized as Tetsu’s echoed back to the kitchen.

“As I said, he was just a minion. He didn’t have any real power, and to react violently would have made the situation worse than it was.” Shin’s calm tone apparently didn’t have any effect.

“ _He insulted our name!”_ Tetsu shouted. “There was a time when no one _dared_ insult the Oedo name.”

Reita peeked around the edge of the door just in time to see the rest of the yakuza members go very, very still; glancing back and forth between Tetsu and their Boss-apparent.

“Times have changed,” Shin responded, his tone unaltered. “And so must our methods. We cannot start a clan war because some drunk idiot said something we all know to be stupid and untrue about Kumiko.”

Tetsu’s jaw visibly clenched at the memory.

“It’s better than acting like you don’t care,” he muttered, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Everyone’s eyes, including Reita’s, flicked to Shin.

He stood silent long enough to make everyone think on that statement, then spoke in the same calm voice, albeit more tightly controlled than before.

“Our duty is the safety and well-being of this clan, first and foremost. We are not to allow personal emotion to endanger that. Do I make myself clear?”

Tetsu scowled at the floor.

“I _said_ , do I make myself clear?”

He barely nodded, then mumbled, “Yes, Boss.”

“Good. Then you’re dismissed.”

With a last look at Shin’s inscrutable face, Tetsu turned and left the room. Minoru watched him leave, then looked at Shin with a hint of a plea.

Shin nodded in permission, then Minoru bowed in thanks before following Tetsu out the door. “Aniki?”

Shin nodded at the rest of the group, and they also bowed before leaving. Reita watched them file out, then glanced back at the taller man. He didn’t move for a while, then, when he was sure everyone was gone, Reita saw him close his eyes and utter a long, tired sigh.

Suddenly, Shin headed towards the side door where Reita was hiding. Panicked, Reita stepped back into the kitchen and leaned against the wall as quietly as he could. Shin must have been too tired or distracted to hear him, and continued down the hall to the back porch without pausing. Unsure of what to do, and unable to contain his curiosity, Reita tiptoed down to his room, then peered out of one of the holes in the paper wall.

Sitting quietly in the fading sun, Shin didn’t do anything except sigh and think. Reita then heard soft footsteps and the clink of glass and ceramic heading towards the porch as well. Shin looked up, then smiled ruefully.

“Did it sound that bad?” He asked as Kuroda-san handed him a sake cup.

Kuroda-san chuckled. “It sounded like you needed something to drink.”

The two men raised their cups with both hands, then drank traditionally. Ceremony fulfilled, Shin poured himself another cup.

“He’s always going to resent me, isn’t he?” He spoke almost to himself before he drank.

“Begrudge, more like. And only a small part for a small time.” Kuroda answered, watching the sun set.

Shin breathed a mirthless laugh. “How childish would it make me sound if I said that it wasn’t fair?”

Kuroda chuckled again. “Childish thoughts do not make us children. It is whether we listen to them that determines if we are adults.”

A small hint of a real smile crossed Shin’s face, and the two sat in silence for a while. After a flock of birds passed through their garden, Shin turned to the older man with a mischievous look. “So, do I get a book on ‘Right Things to Say For Every Occasion’ too? Or are you the only one with a copy?”

Grinning, Kuroda-san leaned back and said, “Neither. I’ve just always been this wise.”

Both men laughed in easy camaraderie, then watched the sun disappear over the horizon while the boy in the room behind them was left deep in thought.

A few weeks after the terse discussion (which Reita suspected Yankumi never learned the details of), he and his teacher had left school and were considering stopping by the crepe cart on the way home when a large black car pulled up next to them.

There was a flash of fear, as Reita thought that maybe the Black Skulls or some other group Yankumi had pissed off had suddenly come for revenge, but then he sighed in relief as the window rolled down to reveal Shin.

“Shin!” Yankumi yelped in happy surprise. “What are you doing h-”

“They heard.”

Reita turned to Yankumi and saw her eyes widen. “Who?”

“All of them.”

“Are they already…?”

Shin nodded.

Reita was sure Yankumi didn’t utter the word he thought he heard.

“Did you bring my kimono?”

“Yes. Do you think it will still fit?”

Yankumi looked down at her stomach, baby bump barely showing. “It should. And it’s not like I have any other options.”

“Can you change in the car?”

Yankumi glanced pointedly at Reita.

“He can look away. Right, Reita?” And the underlying tone made it very clear that this was a command, not a question. He nodded.

“Good. Reita, you can sit over there and look out the window. Let’s go.”

Reita looked out the window, then decided to close his eyes for good measure, just to assure Shin that there was no need to kill him.

After some strangled sounding noises and muffled curses, he finally got permission to turn around.

He glanced at Yankumi and froze.

“You’re beautiful.” He spoke before realizing what he was saying.

And she was beautiful. She was wearing a black kimono with red flowers and white snowflakes, but instead of making her look girly and old-fashioned, as most kimonos do to young women, Yankumi’s kimono made her look strong and powerful and slightly frightening.

Yankumi, who had removed her glasses and hair ties and was now fighting to apply lipstick in the moving vehicle, looked up at him in surprise. “Why thank you!” She responded happily, which caused Reita to stare at the floor. This wasn’t like him. It wasn’t like him to compliment anyone, especially not teachers. It wasn’t like him to be audibly… nice. What was happening to him?

Before he could figure out why he suddenly felt like giving other people chances, the car stopped.

“Reita, could you open the door?” Yankumi asked as she made final touches to her make-up.

He nodded, then opened the car door and stepped out into the bright sun, blinking until he could see again. As soon as he regained his vision, he wished he hadn’t. There was row upon row of black-clad men lined up along the path to the house, and all of them looked utterly terrifying. There were men who could be sumo wrestlers, men with scars crisscrossing their faces, men with elaborate tattoos trailing up from their backs and arms, and a few men who looked like they belonged on a ‘Wanted’ poster. He was fairly certain that most of them were armed, and all of them were dangerous.

Frozen in fear, Reita stood in place until he felt hands gently moving him out of the way. Once he was positioned on the other side of the car door, Shin emerged and was met with a hundred or so shouts of “Welcome home, Yondaime!”

He returned the gesture, then moved to the side to allow Yankumi to step out.

As she stood up, the myriads of terrifying men bowed deeply and all shouted, “Congratulations, Ojou!”

Yankumi smiled softly and walked slowly with Shin down the pathway, leaving Reita to trail uncertainly after them. He watched as they both nodded at certain people, spoke to others, and generally acted like royalty being honored by their subjects. It was then that he realized that, in the yakuza world, they were basically royalty. He vaguely knew that the Oedo clan was one of the largest groups in Japan, but there was a vast difference between knowing that and seeing at least a hundred men bowing to his teachers as they walked home.

As they reached the front of the house, they bowed and greeted a few more people, who were wearing slightly different outfits from the black uniform of the men behind them. Reita noticed that there were some women on the front porch, wearing colored kimonos and looking simultaneously attractive and deadly.

“Kumiko-chan, it’s such happy news, and we’ve been waiting for so long!” One of the ladies Reita estimated to be older (it was hard to tell with that much make-up) commented to Yankumi as she came up.

“Sakura anego-san, I haven’t been married that long.” Yankumi reminded her with a smile.

“Long enough. We kept waiting for him to knock up you up and produce an heir, but you two are slow.” The older lady leaned forward, drowning Reita in the wafting waves of her perfume. “Were the problems yours or his? You can tell me.”

Fortunately for both Yankumi and Reita, who both had identical expressions of shock and horror, another woman stepped in.

“We’re so happy for you both.” She interrupted. “How far along are you?”

“Thank you, Yasu nee-san.” Reita was sure the gratitude extended past the congratulations. “And I’m reached four months a week ago.”

“How exciting for everyone. I’m sure Kumicho is pleased.”

Yankumi smiled. “Yes, Oji-san is very proud. He keeps trying to buy us things, but is torn between getting everything now, or waiting until we find out if it’s a boy or a girl.”

The women laughed, and then Sakura-san seemed to remember the girl next to her, who had been silent during the conversation.

“Ah, I’d almost forgotten. Kumiko-chan, I’d like to introduce my newest girl. This is Ayaka-chan. She runs errands for me, helps out around the place, and I’m training her to be useful one day.”

All eyes turned towards Ayaka-chan, but her attention was elsewhere and she didn’t notice.

“Ayaka-chan!” Sakura-san shouted in her ear. “Why are you staring into space? Greet Kumiko-chan properly!”

Jumping, the girl nodded hastily and said, “Hello Ojou, and congratulations on-”

“On what? Having sex? Are you trying to embarrass her?” Sakura-san shouted, then looked back at Yankumi and Reita, shaking her head without a trace of irony. It was at this moment that Shin decided to join them with a look of poorly concealed amusement.

“Kumiko? They’re ready inside.”

Yankumi nodded and followed Shin after smiling at the circle of ladies. Reita, uncertain of what to do, ended up following them into the now-empty dining room, and kneeling on a cushion while hundreds of people came in to offer gifts to Kuroda-san and Shin and Yankumi.

He kept trying to wiggle his toes to keep his legs from falling asleep, but it was no use. After the first hour passed, he started wondering if he could ask to be dismissed. But then he would look over at Yankumi, kneeling perfectly still with a visible baby bump, and convince himself that he could endure it for a bit longer.

Finally, the last person gave a gift of a small wooden katana, and then everyone had to reassemble and bow to Kuroda, Shin and Yankumi, and then the Oedo family bowed back, and then everyone said congratulations again, and then everyone else said thank you, and just as Reita was beginning to believe that he was going to die of old age before this meeting was over, the kimono-clad anesans and anikis finally left.

As they said farewell to the other yakuza leaders from the porch, Reita collapsed on the floor and tried to massage some feeling back into his legs.

Yankumi, once the last car had driven off, shook her head and remarked to Shin, “Every time I spend time with Anego-san, I remember why I don’t really spend that much time with her. But at least having a big group censored her a little bit.”

Shin spoke Reita’s thought out loud. “That was her being _censored?_ ”

Yankumi nodded. “Oh yes. Once, she and the other anesans decided I needed some ‘womanly education’, and tried to talk to me about relationships, using examples from their own lives. I think I fainted at one point from the sheer embarrassment.”

“What did they talk about?”

“Oh, this and that. Threatening to kill a girl that her boyfriend liked, or trying to mutilate their unfaithful husbands, things like that.”

Reita’s eyes widened. Yakuza women were _scary_.

Shin raised a teasing eyebrow. “Would you kill me if I cheated on you?”

“Well, of course.” Yankumi answered casually. “But I wouldn’t tell stories about it.”

“That’d be in poor taste.”

“Exactly.”

They stared at each other with poorly concealed smiles until the clock chimed eight times, interrupting what felt like a potential kiss (fortunately for Reita’s stomach).

 _They flirt in the weirdest ways…_ Reita thought to himself.

“Eight! It’s eight o’ clock already?” Yankumi suddenly ran across the room shouting, “I haven’t even started grading homework yet! Or planning tomorrow’s lesson!”

Her glasses reappeared, and she quickly tied her hair up in a ponytail. “I’m going to go change, then I’ll be ready to get to work for my precious, shining students!”

And suddenly, the powerful, self-assured yakuza Ojou was gone, and she was Yankumi again.

As she pounded up the stairs, Reita remarked to Shin, who was leaning against a doorframe, “She’s important, isn’t she?”

His eyes flicked up the stairs, then back to Reita. “Yes she is. Especially in this world, to these people. Most of the respect I get from them is from Kuroda and her.”

Reita turned to him in surprise. “I’m sure you earned some, too.”

Shin grinned. “But the only reason any of them gave me a chance was because of the respect they have for Kumiko and Kuroda.”

After a moment of thought, Reita cautiously ventured another question. “Do you think that’s… right?”

It was now Shin’s turn to look at Reita in surprise. “Yes.” He took a moment to think about it, then continued, “If they give me respect because I have good taste in who I marry, then I have no reason to complain. Like I said, after I married Kumiko, they extended the respect they have for her to me. Now, my job is to make sure they also respect me because of… me.” He shrugged, as though he wasn’t sure if he had said too much.

“But if she’s so important, why is she spending her time with screw-ups like us?”

Shin laughed softly and looked out to where Yankumi was poring over test papers. “Because she wants to. It’s her calling.” He leaned back pensively. “Most of the men out there, and even a few here, thought that she was wasting her time, doing a job that lots of people could do, while she was needed as Ojou.” A smile crept across his face. “But no one else can do what she does. She doesn’t just teach math and manage homeroom. She takes kids who have given up on school, on other people, on life, and she… gives them hope again. Gives them life again.”

He looked over to see Reita staring at him. “Sorry,” Shin chuckled at himself. “Sometimes I let myself wax a bit maudlin. Good night, Reita.”

Reita had no idea what any word in Shin’s first sentence meant, but he said goodnight anyway and headed to bed.

In between thoughts about what Shin said Yankumi could do, and what was happening to his classmates; Reita reflected on the fact that while everyone seemed to know more than he did about everything, he’d wager on the fact that no one noticed that Ayaka-chan was not actually staring into space. He’d also bet that no one else had seen that long after Ayaka-chan had stepped away, Tetsu’s face still looked like someone had smacked it with a fish.

Content in knowing at least one secret Shin couldn’t guess at, Reita grinned and settled into bed.

_Just another day at the Oedo house…_

 


	6. Revelations

**Chapter 6 – Revelations**

**Shatei - ‘little brother’, a term used for brand new yakuza members that are still learning the ropes.**

**Kumicho – yakuza boss**

**Yondaime – Fourth in line to be a yakuza boss**

* * *

 

Fortunately, the next week was free of terrifying yakuza members lining the path to the Oedo house. However, a non-terrifying yakuza member did show up when Yankumi and Shin had decided to go out to dinner, leaving Reita watching tv with Minoru and Tetsu, eating delivery ramen. During a commercial, Reita got up for a drink and saw Ayaka-san standing awkwardly outside the door.

“Oh, hi, can I help you?”

“Yes, hello. Are you one of the Oedo’s _shatei_?”

“What? Oh, no, I’m one of Yankumi’s students, and I’m just staying here temporarily. I’m Saiga Reita.” He bowed for the introduction.

“Ayaka Hina. I was sent here by Anego-san to deliver a gift to Ojou. Is she here?”

“Oh, she and Shin went out to dinner. Sorry.”

“Oh.” She looked down at the ground, biting her lip, then peered around Reita and asked, “Is… Tetsu-san here, by any chance?”

“Uh… just one moment. I’ll go check. Please come in.” He offered quickly, then ran around to the back room.

“Tetsu! That girl’s here to see you!”

Tetsu, who had just stuffed a large portion of noodles in his mouth, looked up in confusion.

“Wha wurl?” Minoru asked, who also had a huge mouthful of noodles, but had no qualms about talking around it.

“You know, the girl with the scary lady from the baby shower. Ayaka-chan.”

Tetsu’s eyes widened and he suddenly began to cough. Minoru pounded him on the back a few times, and after he had finally swallowed, he stared up at Reita in what looked like fear.

“Ayaka-ch… -san! Why does she want to see me?”

A deep voice suddenly chimed in from behind the wall. “Probably because she likes you.”

The boys jumped in surprise to see Kuroda-san come around the corner.

“Boss!” The minions yelped, then quickly bowed.

“Now, are you going to go talk to her, or are you going to keep her waiting?”

“I-I-I can’t talk to her!”

“Why not?” Kuroda’s voice was even calmer than usual, probably in an attempt to counteract Tetsu’s panic.

“I… she’s… I couldn’t… and she’s so… I… I wouldn’t know what to say.” He mumbled at last.

“Ask her about herself. Everyone likes talking about themselves.”

“But I don’t…” Tetsu was still staring at the floor, looking defeated already.

“What do you want to know about her?”

Tetsu looked up with a half-open mouth, shrugging his shoulders, and shaking his head, about to say “I don’t know” for the third time, when they all heard a delicate feminine sigh coming from a few rooms down. He turned and saw her silhouette against the wall, and suddenly, his whole body relaxed.

“Everything.” He breathed, staring at her shadow.

Reita and Minoru looked at each other in confusion, then at Kuroda-san, who looked very pleased with himself.

 _He does know the right thing to say for everything._ Reita thought in wonder.

Kuroda chuckled. “I’d be a little more specific, but that’s a good start. Now, button up your shirt, go out and greet her, and ask how she’s doing. Go on.”

With a little more prompting, they finally shoved Tetsu out into the hall, where he shot them one last panicked look before entering the front room.

“Oh! Good evening, Tetsu-san.”

“G-g-good evening, Ayaka-ch… -san.”

“Oh, you can call me Ayaka-chan. Everyone at Anego-san’s place does.”

From their strategic place around the corner, they could see Tetsu nodding his head, but not saying anything. Kuroda coughed significantly.

“Oh, um, h-how are you doing?”

“I’m doing very well. I’m learning lots from Anego-san. She’s an amazing role model.”

Tetsu made a noise that sounded like a combination of a strangled laugh and a shudder.

“I’m s-sure she is.”

Awkward silence fell until Ayaka-chan remembered why she was there.

“I almost forgot! Anego-san saw this obi and had it blessed to bring good luck to the baby. Could you give it to Ojou for me?”

“Yes.” Tetsu replied in a different tone, stoically taking the folded cloth and setting it down next to him.

“You must be so pleased to have an heir to the clan on the way!”

“Yes, everyone’s… very happy.” He answered in the same strange voice. Reita looked up to see Kuroda staring at Tetsu as if waiting for something.

“I mean, I started with Anego-san after the wedding, but I heard it was lovely, and everyone says such good things about Yondaime and-”

“What food do you eat!” Suddenly burst forth from Tetsu like an eruption.

Ayaka-chan blinked at him. “What?”

“I-I mean what food do you like to eat?” He stuttered to the floor.

Curious as to why Tetsu changed the subject in such an explosive manner, Reita glanced at Kuroda and saw him smiling proudly, with Minoru near tears with a trembling smile. Why asking a girl out was such a big deal, Reita had no clue.

“Be-because there’s a very nice tempura place that I know and I like to eat there sometimes.” Tetsu risked peering up at the girl across the table, just in time to see a large grin appear on her face.

“I like tempura.” She told him softly.

“Oh. Uh, good.” Tetsu nodded, unsure where to go from there.

“I have next Friday free.”

“Oh good! Me too. I’ll, uh, meet you there-”

A large disapproving cough came from behind the wall.

“I mean, I’ll pick you up. And then we’ll go there.”

Ayaka-chan added fluttering eyelashes to her smile. “Alright.”

Completely defenseless against the double-pronged attack, Tetsu could only repeat, “Alright,” in a dazed tone.

Kuroda-san’s satisfied grin grew. “Alright.” He agreed.

As Tetsu escorted Ayaka-chan to the door, and Kuroda-san smiled like a pleased match-maker, and Minoru tried not to blubber, Reita could only think, _Damn, this family is weird._

.

.

.

The next week during lunch, Reita was still puzzling over why Tetsu getting a date was such a big deal, and what Shin had meant when he asked if Tetsu would always resent him, when Itsuo slammed down a roll of money and announced, “I got lunch, fellas. No need to worry.”

Reita, Tawara, and Koji all looked up from their food in surprise.

“Sweet!” Koji yelled, and went back to the buffet for a second helping.

Tawara and Reita stared at Itsuo suspiciously.

“You never get lunch.” Tawara stated with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, that was before. This is now. Enjoy my generosity.”

Reita glanced at the amount of money on the table. “Where’d you get all that?”

“I’ve got a new job now.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m a courier, okay? Can you stop with the interrogation?”

“What kind of courier job pays that well?”

“Geez, would you lay off? My brother hooked me up, alright?”

Reita stopped asking questions, but this last piece of information only made him more uneasy. Itsuo’s brother Takumi had dropped out of school fairly early on, and was always getting in trouble with someone, be it his parents, teachers, or the police.

So he decided to follow him.

After school let out, he watched Itsuo wave goodbye to everyone, then head to his house, change into regular clothes, and ride off on his bike.

It took a minute for Reita to realize that Itsuo had a new bike, with a crate on the back. He followed him through town, down towards the riverfront, taking a few shortcuts in order to keep up. There was a moment when he thought he lost Itsuo in the maze of buildings, but heard the squeak of wheels from around a corner.

He stationed himself behind some pallets and watched Itsuo talk to a man he recognized as Takumi, Itsuo’s brother. Another man come out from the warehouse with a few boxes and loaded them into the crate on the back of Itsuo’s bike.

Reita was listening very hard to try and make out what they were saying, which is why hearing, “Whatcha doing?” right next to his ear caused him to nearly jump out of his skin.

“What the- Yankumi! What the hell are you doing here?”

“Following you.” She answered, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

“What? Why?”

She blinked at him. “Because you looked concerned.”

“What? I looked concerned so you decided to follow me?” He hissed at her.

“Well, yeah. If you’re worried, it’s for a good reason. You’re a good judge of these things.”

Reita stared, unsure how to respond to the fact that an adult trusted him without question.

“I don’t need your compliments.” He finally muttered, which just caused Yankumi to smile broadly.

They were interrupted by Itsuo calling out, “Alright, bye!” and biking away.

“See, told you he’d work out.” Takumi told the guy next to him.

“Fine, as long as you’re sure he doesn’t know.”

“Not a clue.”

Reita and Yankumi exchanged glances as the two men walked back inside the warehouse. Crouching down, Reita made his way over to a dusty window and peered in, crowded closely by Yankumi. Through the dusty panes, Reita could make out several boxes, some white packages, and tables of glass tubes and bottles.

“Yankumi, I’m not familiar with these things, but this kind of looks like-”

“Drugs.” Yankumi finished, and Reita looked over to see all traces of her usual smile gone. “Lots of drugs. Probably distributed through one of the other groups.”

“How can you be sure?” Reita whispered.

“No small-time dealer would set up something like this on their own. They’d have to have protection from one of the yakuza clans. You can see the shipment they set aside for whoever’s protecting them.”

Reita looked and noticed a separate pile of boxes.

“…The Oedo clan isn’t involved with this stuff… right?” He asked slowly.

“No!” Yankumi rounded on him, eyes ablaze. “We forbid anyone even vaguely connected with us to touch drugs or trafficking. If we find anyone who is involved, we kick ‘em out faster than they can blink.”

“Okay, okay. Just asking.”

Yankumi looked back through the window. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.”

Reita glanced over in surprise. “Without calling the police?”

“They’d just move. And the first person they’d blame is Itsuo. Let’s go.”

As soon as they got home, Yankumi made Reita explain what he saw and did to Shin and Kuroda, who surprisingly listened carefully and took his word at face value. No adults had ever done that before.

“This can’t be good. The other clans know our stance on drugs. If they’re expanding operations they know we don’t like, it means they don’t care.” Shin said, then looked to Kuroda.

“Wakamatsu, Makoto, go poke around a bit. Don’t be too obvious, but find out if anyone’s suddenly earning more cash.” Kuroda spoke to the minions behind him.

“ _Hai_ , Kumicho.” The men bowed and left.

“Shin, set up meetings with our allies. We should reaffirm old friendships, just in case.” Shin nodded and left the room.

“Reita,” He glanced up warily, wondering if this was the time they’d kick him out of the house while they dealt with clan stuff. “Thank you for telling us this. My advice is to try and get your friend out of the line of fire. Even if he doesn’t know what he’s delivering, he’s still liable to be charged with the same crime.” Kuroda nodded in dismissal.

As Reita and Yankumi left, she looked over and said, “Don’t worry, Saiga. I’ll take care of it.”

But Reita wasn’t really listening. It was his job to help his friends, to keep them out of trouble. He had been so caught up with his own problems and moving in with Yankumi that he couldn’t even remember if Itsuo had mentioned looking for a job, or needing money. This was his fault, and he was going to make it right.

The next day during lunch, Reita took a deep breath and went to talk to Itsuo on the rooftop, away from the other guys.

“Hey, Itsuo…” Reita paused, trying to ask as gently as possible. “Have you ever… looked at what you’re carrying for your job?”

Itsuo looked vaguely offended. “What? No! Haven’t you seen the Transporter movies? Good couriers never look at the package.”

Knowing Itsuo, Reita raised his eyebrow.

“Well, okay, I looked once. It’s just a bunch of cigars, man. They’re probably trying to get out of transport tax or something.”

Reita took another breath. “Itsuo… I think you’re carrying drugs.”

“What? Are you crazy? My brother hooked me up with this job. He wouldn’t-”

“Itsuo, I saw him. The guys he was with were making drugs in the warehouse.”

“Oh, come on. Those guys would never-” Itsuo stopped, then looked up at Shin in realization. “How did you know they were in a warehouse?”

“I…”

“You followed me! My best friend doesn’t trust me, can’t leave well enough alone, and followed me as if I were a criminal!”

“Itsuo, it’s not like that. I was just-”

“You don’t trust me!”

“I don’t trust your brother!” Reita finally shouted back.

Itsuo drew back, then set his jaw stubbornly. “He knows money is tight for us, okay? He got me this job so I could help Mom and Dad. I know everyone thinks we’re both screw-ups, but we’re not.” He glared at Reita in disgust. “I guess you’re just like everyone else.”

Before Reita could respond, Itsuo stormed off, slamming the door behind him.

Sighing heavily, Reita sank down on a bench with his head in his hands.

“You could have let me talk to him.” A soft voice next to him piped up.

He looked over and nearly had a heart attack when he saw Yankumi sitting on the bench as well. He looked around. How the hell had she gotten up here? Wings?

“What difference would it make?” He mumbled finally.

“It wouldn’t have hurt you so bad.”

Unable to respond to the fact that a teacher cared enough about him to want to spare his feelings, Reita just looked at the ground and tried to think of a plan.

Itsuo ignored him the rest of the day, pointedly avoided eye contact, and as soon as the bell rang, he ran out of the room. Shaking his head, Reita went after him.

He decided to head straight to the warehouse, rather than to Itsuo’s house and back.

Even without the detour, Itsuo arrived a few minutes after Reita had hid himself.

“Takumi!” He shouted, hurriedly propping up his bike.

His brother popped his head around the warehouse door. “Oh, hey Itsuo. Bit early, but that’s alright.” He turned to shout behind him, “Delivery’s here, let’s get them out!”

Itsuo went up to him. “Onii-chan, I need to talk to you.”

Takumi frowned. “About what?”

Itsuo grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to the pallets where Reita was hiding.

“I’m not carrying anything… bad, am I?” He asked anxiously.

“What?”

“The stuff I’m delivering… it’s not bad, is it?”

Takumi waved his hand dismissively. “Of course not! I told you, it’s just some cigars that would be taxed if you don’t deliver them by hand. It’s not anything illegal at all.”

Itsuo looked somewhat reassured until the last part.

“Illegal?”

“Yeah. Isn’t that what you said?”

“I asked if it was anything bad.” He glanced over at the packages men were putting into his bike crate. “Is it something illegal?”

Takumi’s eyes shifted a little before replying, “I told you, of course not.”

Itsuo stared in almost disbelief. “You’re lying to me.” He looked back at the crate, then started walking towards it.

“Itsuo, don’t!” His brother hissed, then lunged to grab his arm. Itsuo dodged out of the way and ran towards his bike.

Just as he reached it, Takumi grabbed the seat and handlebar. “Do you want to get me in trouble?” He hissed, yanking on the bike.

“What did you get me into?” Itsuo hissed right back.

“Nothing! Now stop pulling!”

“You stop pulling!”

Takumi must have yanked extra hard, because the bike suddenly fell over, smashing the crate to bits and scattering the sham lid of cigars amongst the bags of white powder.

There was a long moment where the only movement was Itsuo glancing up at Takumi in a mixture of shock and betrayal.

“You lied to me.” Itsuo said softly, as if he didn’t want to believe it.

Takumi sighed and started, “Itsuo-”

“What the hell is going on out here?” A voice shouted from inside the warehouse, and the door slid open to reveal a very tough looking man who probably always looked pissed at something. He stopped, then looked at the fallen bike, the scattered bags, and the two brothers.

“What the hell happened here?” He asked Takumi in a dangerously quiet tone.

“Nothing Boss. Just a little accident.”

“Accident?” The man’s eyes flicked to Itsuo. “This kid is a witness now. Do you know what that means?”

Takumi glanced between his brother and his boss. “Well, I…”

“It means he knows our business. It means he knows where we are and who we deal to. It means that he could go to the cops and that would make life very difficult for us.”

“He won’t go to the cops, Boss. I swear.” Takumi looked very, very nervous.

“You also swore that he wouldn’t find out. Don’t worry, Takumi, I’ll clean up your mess, like I always do. Boys, let’s have a chat with our little delivery kid here.”

At least twenty men emerged from out of the warehouse and headed towards Itsuo.

“Don’t touch him!” Takumi shouted, surprising everyone, and punched the nearest guy in the face. “Run, Itsuo!”

Itsuo tried, but his escape was blocked by half a dozen men. He valiantly threw kicks and punches, but they did little damage, and mostly caused the men to laugh. Until Reita elbowed one in the back of the neck.

“Reita! What’re you doing here?” Itsuo yelped in surprise.

“Trying to save your sorry ass!” He shouted back, kneeing one of them in the stomach.

The two boys fought as hard as they could, but they were outnumbered and outmatched. Eventually, Reita, Itsuo, and Takumi were all dragged back into the warehouse, and the heavy door was slid shut behind them.

 _Ah, shit,_ Reita thought. _This can’t end well for anyone._

“Well, it seems that not only did Takumi deceive us in his choice of employees, but the delivery kid also brought a spy to intrude on our affairs. Gentlemen, demonstrate what we do to people who intrude on our affairs.”

With chuckles of glee, the men advanced and began laying into their three prisoners, viciously kicking ribs and punching faces. Reita tried to fight back, but it only attracted more men to want a turn beating up the “wiggly one”.

Reita was sure he heard one of the Takumi’s ribs crack when there was a sudden boom from the door. Some of the men slowed their attack to glance over. Another boom caused the rest to stop and look at each other in confusion.

The third thud split the large door in half, and everyone stared, transfixed as the halves groaned and fell to the ground, landing on either side of a petite figure.

Reita suddenly found himself grinning.

“Who _dares_ to harm my precious students?” A voice echoed through the warehouse. The drug dealers stared.

“Who the hell are you?” Shouted the boss.

“Me? _I_ am the homeroom teacher of the boys you are so valiantly fighting. Five to one odds against kids isn’t very brave.” Yankumi pointed out as she moved into the warehouse.

“Yankumi?” Itsuo choked out in disbelief.

“You calling us cowards?” Boss-man asked threateningly.

“Since it takes fifteen grown men to take down two kids and a dumbass, I’d say yes.”

“Hey!” Takumi coughed in protest.

“I’ll get to you in a minute.” Yankumi told him without looking at him, and Reita was very glad he wasn’t in Takumi’s shoes.

“Get her!” The boss yelled, and the men swarmed towards her.

Slightly less graceful than usual, Yankumi still managed to glide between her attackers and use painful-looking joint locks to throw most to the ground. One guy ended up on the floor after Yankumi pulled his bent arm backwards, flipping him over. Another guy ended up smashing his face into her knee after a neat head lock brought him down with her knee came up.

After only a few minutes, the boss was crawling backwards and shouting in fear, “Who the hell are you?!”

“I told you.” She answered calmly, marching steadily towards him. “I’m what happens when you mess with my students. Now,” She squatted down to look him in the eye. “What clan is protecting you?”

“Huh?”

“What clan is protecting you? Or haven’t you heard that the reigning yakuza clan does not take kindly to drugs being sold in their territory?”

“S-some guy said that he’d take care of the clans, th-that w-we wouldn’t be bothered.” The man was visibly shaking.

“Name?”

“H-he said his name was Sato. Th-that’s all I know.”

Yankumi stared at him for a bit, then nodded to herself. “Alright. I believe you.”

“You do?” The man asked in surprise.

“Yup.” She responded, then punched him in the face, effectively knocking him unconscious. She then slowly turned around to look at the boys. Reita was smiling tiredly, Itsuo was gaping in complete shock, and Takumi looked understandably shaken.

“You.” Yankumi pointed at Takumi, who suddenly looked even more frightened. “Explain how you got Itsuo into this mess.”

“Hey!” Itsuo protested, but was silenced by Reita’s elbow in his side.

“I… I was trying to help my family.” Takumi mumbled.

“By dealing drugs? By selling things that ruin lives? By eventually getting yourself in prison? Shaming your family? Getting your little brother in trouble?”

“You don’t know anything about me!” Takumi finally shouted.

“I know that you’re a big brother. And that means that your job is to be someone your brother can look up to. Be someone that he can be proud of. Be someone he wants to be. Because he wants to be you.” Takumi glanced at Itsuo, who stared sullenly at the ground. “Doesn’t matter if everyone thinks you’re a screw-up, even if you think you’re a screw-up, he wants to be you. Your job is to be worthy of that. Doesn’t matter if you’re a janitor, or a trash collector, or the president, you live the way you want your brother to live. Work hard. Be honest. Put other people first. That is your first and most important job.”

Takumi stared. “I…”

“The cops will be here any minute. You ask for Captain Shinohara and cooperate with him – he’ll make sure you’re alright. Now, Reita and I will be tying these guys up while you two chat for a minute.”

Yankumi grabbed Reita, handed him some zip ties ( _Where does she keep this stuff?_ He wondered), and went to work on several of the men, tossing them into a pile once restrained. Reita knelt down next to one of the unconscious drug dealers and only sort of listened in to Itsuo and Takumi’s conversation.

“That’s, um, some teacher you got there.” Takumi murmured.

“Yeah.” Itsuo answered thoughtfully. “Guess she is.”

“Look, I… I didn’t mean for all this to… I just thought that since I couldn’t do anything else with my life, this was an easy way to make money and… I guess I didn’t think about how it could…”

“It’s okay.” Takumi looked up in surprise at Itsuo’s answer. “And you’re wrong. You could do a lot with your life. And be pretty good at it, too.”

Takumi stared at him for a moment, then grinned. “Thanks kid.”

Itsuo grinned back. “No problem, Onii-chan.”

The sound of a siren echoed through the warehouse.

“Well, guess that’s my cue to leave!” Yankumi smiled cheerfully as she dumped the last of the thugs on a large pile in the middle of the room. “Goodbye Takumi. And remember, talk to Shinohara-san. He’ll take care of you.”

“I will. And… thanks.”

Yankumi beamed. “You’re welcome! Bye!” And after grabbing Itsuo and Reita, she hurried out the broken door.

They walked Itsuo to his house, waved, and were about to leave when he called out, “Reita! Wait!”

Reita turned to see Itsuo shuffling his foot on the ground. “Sorry about what I said earlier. I just… didn’t want it to be true.”

“It’s alright. What are friends for?” The boys grinned at each other.

“And Yankumi, I… thanks for coming to get me. And for talking to Onii-chan. I guess, you’re alright, for a teacher.”

Yankumi suddenly looked like she was about to cry, and ruffled Itsuo’s hair vigorously. “You rascal! It’s my duty as your number one teacher to rescue my precious students, no matter what. Come wind, come snow, come sleet, come giant tsunamis, come the flaming sun crashing into the earth, I will-”

“Yankumi,” Reita interrupted what felt like the start of a never-ending speech. “It’s late.”

“Oh, yes. Well, good night Itsuo! Don’t be late tomorrow!”

Itsuo smiled and nodded, then disappeared into his house. Yankumi and Reita headed towards their own home as well.

“You alright?” Yankumi asked after noticing Reita grimace when he stumbled a little.

“I’m fine. Nothing some sleep won’t fix. You okay? You took down a lot of guys.”

“Pffft. They were nothin’. Left themselves so open a strong breeze would have knocked them over.”

“Uh huh,” Reita answered, then wondered if her strength was natural, or if she had been dumped in toxic waste and gotten superpowers as a kid.

They reached the porch and took off their shoes while stretching out their kinks.

“Man, I am ready for bed.” Reita yawned as he kicked off his shoe.

“Me too.” Yankumi agreed as they both walked into the living room and stopped dead. There, glowering with impressive fury, was Shin with his arms crossed.

“So. Where have you two been?” He asked crisply.

“Uh… helping a student! Family troubles, you see.” Yankumi replied with an extra bright smile.

Shin was unconvinced. He marched forwards, then leaned in close and blew on Yankumi’s shoulder. A sizable portion of dust flew off behind her as her smile got more nervous.

“You were at the warehouse.” Shin observed tightly.

“Only for a little bit! And Tanaka and Saiga were in trouble, and Takumi was being an awful big brother, so-”

“So you went into a warehouse full of drugs and drug dealers _alone_?!”

“There wasn’t that many of them! And it wasn’t like I was going to do drugs while I was in there.”

“They could have thrown one at you and it wouldn’t have hurt just you!”

“I – oh.” Yankumi stopped as the thought occurred to her, and placed her hand over her belly protectively. “I guess I didn’t think of that. Sorry.”

Shin started to reply, then sighed exhaustedly. “It’s alright. You just have to think of these things now, okay?”

Yankumi nodded.

“And I want you to swear to me that the next time you go into a dangerous place, you. Will. Call. Me. Are we clear?”

Yankumi nodded again. “I swear. Sorry, Shin.”

“I know. Now, are you hungry?”

“Oh yes, starved.”

“Minoru, do we have extra hot pot?”

“Always, Boss! I will bring it out for Ojou right away!”

Reita, glad he escaped Shin’s wrath, ate quickly and went to bed, thinking that it was all over.

He was wrong.

The next morning, as he was waiting by the porch for Yankumi, Shin suddenly appeared and said, “Let’s go.”

Startled, Reita started walking with him. “Where’s Yankumi?”

“She’ll be in for math. I volunteered to take homeroom today.” He answered shortly.

“Uh, okay.” Reita shrugged and decided to go along with it. His classmates were equally confused.

“What is Shin doing here? I though Yankumi didn’t have the flu anymore?” Tawara asked Koji, who murmured something unintelligible through a full mouth.

“Is she okay?” Itsuo whispered to Reita worriedly.

“Yeah. I mean, he said that she’s coming in for math, so I assume she’s fine.” Reita answered back.

The bell rang, and Shin called 3-D to attention.

“Alright everyone, listen up. I have some news for you.” The boys looked at each other in confusion, then glanced back at Shin.

“Yankumi is pregnant.” Everyone’s mouth dropped open in shock (including Reita’s – he wasn’t expecting Shin to announce it to everyone, although, he hadn’t really thought about how they were going to tell anyone, really), and a few kids fell out of their chairs.

“Now, while she is in this delicate position, she is still going to do everything with all her energy, so that means if you get into trouble, she’ll come after you. Only difference is that if she comes after you, so will I.” Reita was sure at least half the class got chills from Shin’s frosty tone.

“I want everyone here to think twice, or even three times before you piss anyone off, do something stupid to impress a girl or your friends, or talk back to people who could get you in trouble. Think about whether it’s worth possibly getting Yankumi hurt, and definitely getting my direct attention before you do something.” Shin glanced around the room of wide-eyed boys. “Do I make myself clear?”

There were scattered mumbles in reply.

“I _said_ , do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Came the answer.

“Good. I will leave you all to mull that over, and if you’re asking yourselves if I’m serious,” He narrowed his eyes dangerously. “I am.”

Without another word, he walked out of the room, leaving 3-D to gape openly before dissolving into rapid conversation, most of which were wondering how Shin would kill whoever disobeyed him. After a long and tense discussion, they decided that he was mostly likely to feed them to bears, then set them on fire and throw them into the ocean with sharks.

“Good morning everyone!”

Everyone turned at Yankumi’s cheerful voice.

“Wait, where’s Shin?” She wondered, then noticed that the whole class was staring at her belly and wondering how they hadn’t noticed before.

“What’s going on?” She asked suspiciously, then saw everyone’s eyes flick up to her with looks of fear.

Suspicions confirmed, she turned and shouted through the door, “Shiiinnnn!!!”

 _Yup_ , Reita thought. _Just another day in 3-D._

 


	7. Learning

**Chapter 7 - Learning**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!**

**Some notes:**

**Onna-bugeisha are Japanese warrior women who had a huge influence on Japan with a truly fascinating history, if you want to check them out on Wikipedia.**

**Hai means ‘yes’**

**Kumicho means ‘Boss’ (specifically the yakuza boss)**

**And if you’d like to learn or relearn about the French Revolution, John Green does a hilarious summary at youtube dot com/** **watch?v=BvSod16wfgg.**

**Thank you all so very much for reading (I love you all), and please review!**

* * *

 

While Saiga Reita was sure the entire class of 3-D would have paid good money to hear the discussion Yankumi and Shin had after his surprise “announcement”, they were supremely disappointed. And, eventually, they accepted Yankumi’s pregnancy as a normal part of their daily routine. She was still their crazy, speech-spouting teacher who would defend them no matter what anyone else said.

Reita was amazed to see how well Shin had gotten through to them. For instance, when some punk from a different class would say something stupid, and while, before, it would have instantly started a brawl, Reita could almost see the image of a furious Shin flash before his classmates’ eyes. So the punks would escape with just a shove and someone shouting about how lucky they were.

Yankumi also kept her temper in check fairly well, though her way of dealing with young upstarts was to beam at them and tell them how important chasing the sun or something was. Reita and his friends laughed about it, and the reactions the other kids had to her weird methods. Itsuo guessed that insulting math was the only way to get under her skin. Koji thought maybe she did tai chi. Tawara wondered if she even had a breaking point.

Reita found out soon enough.

School had been out for half an hour, but Yankumi was nowhere to be seen. Knowing that if he headed to the Oedo house without Yankumi, he’d be interrogated like a captured spy, he reluctantly poked around the likely places she could be hiding.

After checking to see that the classroom and roof were empty, he walked towards the teachers’ offices. As he moved down the hall, he heard voices; one very Yankumi-like protestation and one Principal-like pretentious voice making muffled statements.

“… do you mean ‘flunk out’?” Yankumi’s squeak got clearer as Reita got closer.

“Exactly what I said. Mochizuki Junpei is failing Yashuhiko-sensei’s world history class, and seeing as how he’s barely scraping by in his other classes, a failing grade will result in immediate academic dismissal.”

“But why didn’t you tell me earlier? If I had known, we could have worked with Mochizuki-kun to help him improve his grades!”

“I merely assumed that you had been keeping tracking of your students’ progress, Sawada-sensei. Or maybe your… _delicate condition_ is preventing you from your duties?” The principal asked in a sneering tone.

Showing remarkable restraint, Yankumi ignored that last jibe. “Yashuhiko-sensei, have you offered him extra resources at all? Maybe some quality time with him and talking about how important history is would encourage him to-”

“I did no such thing.” An indignant voice interrupted. Reita peered through the gap in the sliding door in time to see Yashuhiko-sensei, a small man who always looked like he was smelling something foul, lean forward to lecture Yankumi. “If he wanted to improve himself, he would come to me and ask for help, and then I might be convinced to give it to him. Besides, if he was serious about doing well my class, he could always contract a tutor.”

“Not all families can afford-”

“Nonsense! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“Exactly,” Principal Sawatari agreed, nodding along. “We just wanted to inform you so that you were not surprised when one of your students flunks out after this next world history test.”

“But surely, Yashuhiko-sensei, you want to see your students succeed! If you’d just take some time-”

“It’s not my job to spoon-feed every lazy teenager I come across, Sawada-sensei. I only hope you can learn that before it’s too late.”

Shocked into speechlessness, Yankumi only stared as the two men walked away, murmuring to each other in judgmental tones.

Minutes passed as she still didn’t move. “Yankumi?” Reita ventured as he made his way into the room. “Are you alright?”

She made no answer, but Reita saw that her jaw was clenched and her fisted knuckles were white. “Yankumi?”

Suddenly, she turned and stalked out of the teachers’ lounge at a ground-eating pace. Reita trailed behind uncertainly as she muttered angrily to herself the whole way back to the Oedo yakuza headquarters. Her march got more and more pronounced as they walked up to the door, and as she pounded her way to the main room, she threw open the sliding door and shouted, “Fight me!”

The gathered yakuza members looked up in surprise that quickly turned to fear.

“Minoru!”

The large man flinched.

“You need the practice. Let’s go!”

Before Minoru could escape, she grabbed his ear and dragged him out into the courtyard. Reita had never seen anything like his six-months pregnant teacher towing a sumo-sized guy along like a balloon before in his life.

“Alright,” she announced, dropping into a fighting stance as she turned. “Now fight me!”

Minoru stammered as the other men cautiously peered out of doors and windows. “O-o-ojou, I-I don’t think that-”

“What are you waiting for? Come fight me!”

“W-well, c-considering that y-you’re… I-I probably shouldn’t-”

“To _hell_ with shouldn’t!” Reita nearly jumped at the anger and changed tone of her voice. _Now_ she sounded like a yakuza princess. “Stop yammerin’ and try ta hit me, ya big baby!”

Wakamatsu hesitantly spoke up. “N-now, Ojou, there’s no need for name-calling.”

“There is if there ain’t one damn person here willin’ ta fight! Now, which of you cowards are man enough ta face me? Or are you all just going to sit there, shakin’ like leaves, eh?”

A moment passed were Tetsu looked to Makoto in fear, who in turn looked at Wakamatsu in trepidation, and everyone ignored poor Minoru, who kept sending pleading looks to all of them.

“I’ll do it.”

Everyone turned to see Shin emerge from a doorway, face calm and impassive.

Yankumi’s eyes flicked to him and Reita thought she had a split second of hesitation.

“I ain’t gonna go easy on ya ‘cuz you weren’t trained.” She warned as she changed her stance.

A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “You never do.” He pointed out wryly, also bending his knees and settling his weight.

Yankumi suddenly struck out with incredible force, trying to grab and bend any joint she could get her hands on, while Shin moved like lightning, dodging blows and aiming his punches at her shoulders and face. It was almost like a dance, with occasional hits and curses, as the two of them moved around the courtyard. Shin would try and trap her leg with his, then duck beneath Yankumi’s right hook, then come back up and try to get her in an arm bar.

As he grabbed her wrist with one hand and pushed down on her shoulder with the other, he didn’t see her other arm come around to viciously elbow him in the side. He instinctively let go to clutch his rib and realized that Yankumi had hold of his arm too late. Throwing her weight forward, she rotated his arm and flipped him through the air before landing heavily on the ground.

Their audience gave a chorus of sympathetic groans and winces as the breath whooshed out of Shin’s chest. Yankumi, still holding his arm, knelt down to face Shin – though Reita wasn’t sure if it was to see if he was alright or to finish him off.

As they both breathed heavily, Shin coughed a little, then grinned up at his wife. “Feel better?”

Yankumi thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “I do actually!”

“Oh good.” He panted. “Now, can you help me up?”

Suddenly smiling, Yankumi reached down and pulled her husband to his feet.

“So,” Shin said as he dusted himself off. “Something happen at work today?”

“Ugh. You would not believe what the Principal said to me.”

“Oh, I bet I would.”

Slinging his arm around her shoulder, the two walked off to a different part of the house, as if their full out smack-down was a completely normal thing.

Reita blinked at them. He could only come up with one explanation for what had just happened. “They were dropped on their heads as babies. Both of them.”

“Well, kids are rather wiggly.” Kuroda stated sagely as Reita wondered where the hell he had come from.

“And it’s good to see that they’re still so in love.” Kuroda smiled at the retreating couple.

Reita stared. “What?”

“Didn’t you see? They were both taking it easy on each other.”

“Uh, no. I did not see that.”

“Ah well. Maybe it’ll make sense when you’re older.”

But as Kuroda herded the yakuza members inside and comforted a thoroughly terrified Minoru, Reita’s only thought was, _No matter how old I am, I’m sure that will_ never _make sense._

…

Dinner that night was served as usual, though Reita couldn’t help but glance at Shin and Yankumi every now and then to remind himself that the WWE-worthy match outside had actually happened. But there was a cut above Yankumi’s eyebrow, and Shin kept wincing every time he reached for something. Other than that, everyone acted as normal as members of the yakuza and a mob-princess-turned-teacher could be.

Yankumi suddenly leapt to her feet. “I’ve got it!”

The rest of the table stared at her, and Tetsu and Minoru started trembling in fear.

“I will just have to learn history!”

A collective sigh of relief went around, while Shin raised his eyebrow at her. “You mean normal history?”

“Huh?”

“Well, let’s be honest, Yankumi, your version of history is a little… skewed.”

“No it’s not!”

“You think the _onna-bugeisha_ led every battle Japan has ever had.”

“No, I think they led all the winning ones!”

“You think the Mafia set up the Italian government!”

Minoru leaned over to Wakamatsu. “The Mafia is the yakuza, but foreign, right?”

“Right.” Wakamatsu nodded.

“Of course they did!”

Shin sighed in a way that hinted this was not the first discussion of the subject. “No, Yankumi, they didn’t.”

“Well, they’re not going to tell you about that in the textbooks!”

“But you want to help a student memorize the facts in his textbook anyway?”

“Yes!” Yankumi paused. “Oh. I think I see your point.”

“If you want to help him, you’ll have to read what the textbook actually says.” Shin told her.

Yankumi wrinkled her nose in distaste, then nodded to herself and looked upward. “I will do anything to help my student succeed! Even if it involves teaching him things from a false textbook! For my precious student’s graduation dreams, I will set aside my hunt for the truth, and show that stupid, idiotic, misogynistic, tiny little history teacher who’s boss!”

Reita jumped as the rest of the yakuza members rose as one and shouted “OH!” in agreement.

 _So_ that’s _where she gets it from_ , he realized.

Shin just sighed and shook his head.

…

That Monday, Reita kept one eye on Junpei as class progressed, wondering if the poor guy had any idea what was about to happen to him.

The way he jumped about a foot in the air when Yankumi ambushed him after school indicated ‘no’.

“Junpei-kun!” Yankumi beamed as she suddenly appeared next to him.

After coming back down, Junpei looked around to see how she had snuck up on him in the open courtyard in front of the school.

“I was wondering if you wanted any extra history help!”

“Um, no.” He answered, giving her a strange look and trying to walk past her.

She leapt into his way. “Are you sure? Because I don’t mind! I just recently spend a lot of time reading about Japanese history and would love to talk about it with someone.” Yankumi smiled even wider, as if that alone would convince him.

Junpei narrowed his eyes. “First, I’m in World History, and second, find somebody else to talk to.”

He moved to step around her as her smile faltered. “But-”

“Mochizuki-kun!” Both of them turned to see the short, bald, new Vice Principal march towards them. “Principal Sawatari wants to see you!”

Junpei got a look that Reita was very familiar with. The ‘oh great, another meeting with worthless adults telling me how awful I’m doing’ look.

And since he figured that he had followed them this far, might as well keep going, he trailed unobtrusively behind the group to the principal’s office.

“Mochizuki-kun, this is your final warning. If you receive anything less than 75 points on Yashuhiko-sensei’s test next week, you will be expelled on account of academic failure. Although, if you want to flunk out right now, I can make that happen too. It’ll save us an extra week of trouble.” The Principal and his Vice-Principal minion laughed together.

Junpei-kun was glaring at the floor in a way very familiar to Reita, who knew that was a stance you took on while waiting for the verbal abuse to be over.

“He can do it!”

Everyone, including Junpei, turned to look at Yankumi like she was insane.

“You just wait! In one short week, he’ll know everything about history!”

Reita rolled his eyes. _And we’re back on the crazy train._

“And if he doesn’t?” The Principal asked, raising one eyebrow.

Yankumi met his gaze, but swallowed before answering. “You can hold me personally responsible.”

The Principal grinned like a maniac and loudly agreed.

As everyone else got shooed out of the office, Reita hid behind a neighboring pillar.

“Junpei-kun!” Yankumi yelled after his retreating figure. “Let’s go study!”

Junpei stopped, slowly turned, then sneered, “As if,” before continuing down the hall.

Reita saw Yankumi slump in discouragement, then straighten up and head back towards the classroom, mostly likely to grab her stuff. Knowing his time frame was short, Reita took a shortcut and managed to look as if he had been casually leaning against the school gate the whole day.

When he heard lone footsteps approach, Reita lazily moved his gaze upward, just in time to meet Junpei’s look of confusion, which he quickly hid.

As the other boy started to walk past him, Reita looked back at the ground and spoke as if to himself, “It’d be easier to just let her help, you know.”

The footsteps stopped. “Why?” Came the scoffed question.

“Because that’s actually what she wants to do. Help.” He raised his head to catch Junpei’s reaction.

It was mostly bitterness. “No teacher _ever_ just wants to help.”

Careful not to smile at how familiar that sounded, Reita shrugged. “This one does.”

Junpei narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Pushing himself off the gate, Reita moved around Junpei and added, “Just think about it.”

He could feel Junpei’s eyes bore into his back, but he just kept walking. He hoped Junpei listened. There was still a cold pit in his stomach about whatever Yankumi meant by ‘personally responsible’, and _he_ did not want to be personally responsible to Shin for the ramifications of that.

 

The next few days did not go as Reita had hoped.

Yankumi made it her goal to hide behind things and jump out shouting, “Junpei-kun! Ready to learn some history?!” to which Junpei would give her a look that questioned her sanity and then walk away.

After perhaps the twentieth time Yankumi ambushed him, Junpei turned with a look of angered frustration and shouted back, “If I come with you, will you stop following me?!”

Surprised, Yankumi grinned like a kid in a candy store and nodded. Sighing, Junpei allowed himself to be led back to the classroom, where Yankumi had laid out multiple history books every day, in hope that he’d come.

“Great! Where do you want to start?” She asked him, far more excited than she had any right to be.

Junpei stared at her with a face that clearly said she was the one in charge of this fiasco, not him.

Reita, who was studying science in the back corner, tried to pretend that he wasn’t eavesdropping.

“Well… what’s your test going to be on?” Yankumi tried a different approach, but was met with the same response. “Oh, silly me, I have your syllabus right here! Okay, well this is the third test of the year, so… Aha! The French Revolution!”

Opening the textbook to the right chapter, Yankumi read a few sentences, then asked, “Alright… when did the French Revolution start?”

When his surly attitude didn’t faze her, Junpei looked at the book and saw Yankumi’s finger pointing at the answer. He rolled his eyes, but mumbled, “1789.”

“Awesome! And who was the king then?”

Her finger moved down a little, and Junpei gave a tired sigh.

“King Louis the XVI.”

“Correct! Look how much you know already!”

Reita tried unsuccessfully to bite back a smile.

An hour or so passed, and Yankumi eventually announced that Junpei could go home, as long as he studied hard, like a bright shining sun!

The other boy left after rolling his eyes again, and Reita heard Yankumi sigh contentedly.

“I love it when I make progress.”

Reita wasn’t sure exactly how much progress had been made, but he let her have her moment.

The next day, Yankumi convinced Junpei to study with her both during lunch and after school. Reita sensed that Junpei’s resistance to the study sessions was lessening as he actually answered questions without Yankum’s helping finger, and occasionally underlined a few facts on his own.

Friday morning, as Reita waited for class to start, he hoped that maybe Yankumi and Junpei’s study session would go well today, since Yanumi seemed really invested. And then he had a second thought as to why he cared. It was one thing to worry about the personal safety of someone who had offered him a place to stay, but caring about someone’s happiness was something you only did for…

 _Family?_ His mind offered, a little smugly.

Before he could counter that thought, he heard the loud bang of books being slammed onto a desk. Looking up, it seemed like Junpei was in a horribly foul mood today. He glowered at his seat the whole day, not speaking to anyone.

When Yankumi came bouncing back into the classroom to study with him, it looked as if she didn’t even notice Junpei’s mood as she flipped to the right chapter.

“Alright, now where did we leave off… Oh yes! The Reign of Terror! Now, who was in charge at that time?”

Junpei only glared at the floor.

“I’ll give you a hint. His name starts with an ‘r’. Rrrroooobbbeessspiere!”

Without warning, the boy exploded from his seat.

“WHO CARES??” He shouted. “Who cares about the French Revolution? Who cares about studying? Who cares if I flunk out or get expelled? I’m a screw-up, okay? Always have been, always going to be! No amount of studying is going to change that! If I don’t fail this class, I’ll fail another one – doing well in one class isn’t going to prove anything!”

“Yes it will.”

Both Junpei and Reita stared at Yankumi in surprise, both for her answer and for her unchanged tone.

“It will prove that working hard at something results in something good. That it’s worth it. And it’ll prove that you’re not a screw-up. That you never have been. That all you had to do to succeed was work hard. And it’ll prove to whoever called you a screw-up, whoever convinced you that that’s what you are,” here she leaned forward, “that they’re wrong.”

Reita looked over to see Junpei almost in shocked tears.

“You’re not a screw-up, Junpei. You’re not a failure. I know that. And I believe you can do well, not just on this test, but in school. In life. And that’s what this test will prove. It’ll prove that you can try at something, work at something, and it will pay off.” A flicker of a rueful smile crossed her face. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s the moments when it did pay off that get you through. I know, that this class, this test, is the one where it does pay off.”

Blinking, Junpei simply gazed at the ground.

After a few moments of silence had passed, Yankumi reached over to close the textbook. “Perhaps that’s enough studying for today.”

“No.”

Yankumi looked up in hope.

“I-I mean, I was thinking of reading a bit more. Just to make sure everything sticks.”

Even staring at the floor, Junpei could not miss his teacher’s face light up like a Christmas tree.

“Then I’ll help you.”

A few hours later, Yankumi sent Junpei off with an encouraging smile, and she and Reita finally headed home.

Kuroda and Shin looked up from reading when they walked in the door.

“Ah. We were wondering when you’d be back. Studying go well?” Kuroda asked.

Grinning a little to herself, Yankumi took off her shoes. “You know, I think it did.”

When they were all settled around the table, Reita concentrated on filling his desperately starving stomach while the adults talked.

“You must be really invested in this kid.” Shin commented.

“Ojou is invested in all her students!” Minoru announced proudly, smiling around a full mouth.

“Well, Principal Sawatari told me that he’s going to flunk out if he doesn’t pass his history test, and stupid Yashuhiko-sensei refuses to help him at all, and I know he can do great things if he just got a little encouragement.”

There was a general nodding of heads around the table.

“Hey, Yankumi,” Reita remembered something he’d been curious about for a while now. “Why did Monkeyface look so happy when you said you’d be personally responsible if Junpei didn’t pass?”

“Now, Saiga, his name is not Monk- wait, were you eavesdropping on our meeting?”

Reita unabashedly nodded. “Yup.”

“Saiga, you can’t just-”

“Why did he?” Shin asked, a mixture of concerned and suspicious.

Yankumi sudden became very interested in her fish.

“Kumiko…” Shin said in a warning tone.

“Well…” Yankumi hesitated, “I’ve gotten a few… _suggestions_ that perhaps a woman in my… _condition_ isn’t capable of teaching.”

There was complete silence in the entire Oedo household.

Wakamatsu rose from his seat to grab one of the katanas behind him. “I will go and deal with these mudsuckers, Ojou. Simply tell me their names.”

To Reita’s wide-eyed relief, Kuroda spoke up. “Wakamatsu, put the katana away.”

“ _Hai, Kumicho_.” Bowing, Wakamatsu placed the sword back on its stand.

“Thank you, Grandpa.” Yankumi smiled.

“You’re welcome. Would you like me to kill them?”

“Grandpa!”

“Now, now, _Kumicho_ , there is no need for you to take action.” Shin said.

“Thank you, Shin.”

“She’s my wife. I’ll go kill them.”

“ _Nobody is going to kill anybody!”_ Yankumi shouted in exasperation, only to see her family smile teasingly at her.

While Yankumi shook her head in feigned anger, Reita spoke up. “So… if Junpei doesn’t pass…” He looked up at her. “You’ll stop teaching us?”

Silence fell once more as all eyes turned to their Ojou.

She managed a smile and said, “I’m sure Junpei-kun will do fine, Saiga. I believe in him.”

Before Reita could fully voice the selfish yet sad response of, _But I don’t want you to stop_ , Minoru looked toward the door and loudly whispered, “They’re back!”

Simultaneously, everyone dropped to the floor, pulling Reita down with them.

“What the hell are you doing?” He tried to ask, but everyone shushed him.

“Tetsu took Ayaka-chan out on a date tonight!” Makoto told him in a whisper that was louder than most people’s shouts. “And they’re coming back now!”

Reita had noticed Tetsu wasn’t at dinner, but he hadn’t really given much thought as to why. Someone turned the lights off, and soon everyone was peering through windows or around doors as the couple walked closer. Shrugging, Reita poked his head around a door as well.

“That was such a lovely dinner! I’d never had crème brulee before, but it was delicious! Thank you for suggesting it.”

“Oh, no, it was- I mean, you’re wel- I mean, I’m glad you liked it.”

“I did!” She tilted her head sideways and smiled. “I like spending time with you, Asakura.”

Reita blinked. He guessed that Asakura must be Tetsu’s first name. And did Tetsu just _melt_ a little?

When Tetsu just stood there in stunned silence, Ayaka’s eyebrows drew together uncertainly.

“Do you like spending time with me?”

“Yes! I- I mean, very, very much so.”

Confident again, Ayaka smiled before she said, “Well, I should probably get going.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you home?”

“Oh, no. Anego-san wants her girls to walk alone at night to teach attackers that it’s a bad idea to hurt girls.”

“Uh…huh. Well, if you’re sure…”

“I am. But thank you.”

“Well, goodnight, Ayaka-chan.”

She suppressed a grin and stepped closer. “You can call me by my first name, you know.”

Tetsu swallowed. “Oh. Uh… g-goodnight, H-hina-chan.”

Breaking into a full smile, she looked up at him through her lashes. “Goodnight Asakura.” She said softly, then pressed a quick kiss to his lips before walking away.

She was nearly to the gate before Tetsu could even breathe again. He exhaled loudly, then spoke wistfully to the night air. “Ah, Hina-chan. I think I love you.”

“What was that?” Ayaka-chan’s headed popped around the gateway.

Tetsu, understandably panicked, quickly answered, “Nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

“I mean, goodnight, H-hina-chan.”

Smirking a little, she responded, “Goodnight,” and disappeared back around the gate.

Sighing in relief, Tetsu turned to go into the house, then paused as he heard the noise of seven people scurrying back from the entryway. When he walked in, everyone was casually seated at the dinner table, finishing food that had long gone cold.

“I’m back.” Tetsu announced warily, and everyone greeted him in loud, false surprise, trying desperately to look like they hadn’t just been spying on him.

“Well, I’m off to bed.”

“Goodnight!” The rest chorused, and then stared at the floor in an effort not to laugh or add ‘Asakura’ to the end.

The weekend passed fairly quietly for the Oedo headquarters, which only added to Reita’s anxiety about Junpei’s situation and the consequences for Yankumi.

Monday finally came, and then time flew by until history class. Since word got around the school like wind, everyone knew that if Junpei didn’t pass this test, he’d be expelled. Most knew that Yankumi had never had a class where everyone didn’t graduate together, and a growing number didn’t want to be the first.

So as the papers came around, Reita was sure he heard the sounds of small prayers being sent in Junpei’s direction. Looking over, he saw his classmate take a breath, glance at him and Yankumi (who was hovering in the front), then nod in determination. Reita and Yankumi nodded back solemnly, and then the test began.

After answering questions about things like the Committee of Public Safety and the guillotine, the boys slowly handed in their tests. Junpei was one of the last ones, checking and rechecking his answers until time was up.

Reita was certain that Yashuhiko-sensei was deliberately leaving Junpei’s test to score last, and only hurried up because the Principal and his minion arrived at the end of class for some premature gloating.

“Ah yes. Mochizuki-kun’s test.” Yashuhiko-sensei winked at the Principal and then started comparing the test to the answer sheet. All of 3-D sat up a little straighter as the history teacher’s face started to go pale. He reached the end, totaled the score; then shook his head and did the math again.

“Yashuhiko-sensei!” Principal Sawatari finally shouted impatiently.

“Sorry. H-here is Mochizuki-kun’s score.”

The Principal snatched it out of the other teacher’s hand and stared at it. Pursing his lips, he sighed and called Junpei up.

Junpei hesitantly took the paper, then peeked at the total. A slow smile spread over his face as he looked up at his classmates.

“88 points!” He shouted, and the entire room burst into cheers. Steamers and confetti came out of nowhere, and Koji started passing out kazoos, for some reason.

The Principal tried to slink out, but Yankumi intercepted him.

“I told you he’d do well.” She stated smugly, crossing her arms.

“Yes, well. I only hope that he doesn’t fail one of his other classes.”

Yankumi looked over at Junpei, who had been hoisted up on Koji’s back and was being paraded around the room, and smiled. “I don’t think he will.”

Later, after the party had died down a bit, Junpei made his way over to Reita.

“Hey,” He fidgeted some, then continued. “Do you think she really meant all those things? Or was it just some weird psych trick to help me out?”

Without a shadow of a doubt, Reita answered, “She meant all of it. Every word.”

Curious at his confidence, Junpei asked, “How do you know?”

Reita glanced over at Yankumi, who was going around and offering her services as a history tutor to anyone who would listen. “Because she staked her job on it.”

Junpei looked shocked. “What?”

“That’s what she meant by ‘personally responsible’. Monkeyface has been trying to get her to quit teaching school since she’s pregnant, so that was the agreement she made.”

Junpei gazed over at Yankumi as well. “Damn. She’s crazier than I thought.”

Reita chuckled softly. “Yeah. She’s pretty nuts.”

A moment passed, and then Junpei spoke. “But I’m glad she’s our teacher.”

And with a nod of camaraderie, he walked away. Reita looked up to see Itsuo telling Koji not to ask Yankumi for language help, and saw Tawara trying to hold their teacher back as she demanded why Itsuo thought she didn’t “know how to talk good”.

He smiled. “Yeah. I’m glad too.”

 


	8. Family

**Chapter 8 - Family**

**Hello Everyone!**

**So sorry this has taken so long, but hopefully it’s packed with enough action for you to forgive me. =)**

**The scene with the headlights (you’ll figure it out when you get there), was actually my inspiration to start this story, and I’m really glad I did. I just love Yankumi and Shin too much to leave them alone.**

**A few notes:**

**The Hamsa hand necklace Shin wears is in the j-drama as well. I found out it was a good-luck charm back when I was writing ‘Out of the Oridinary’, but couldn’t quite find a place to put it, so I’m glad I can use it here!**

**A fundoshi is an ancient style of male underwear in Japan that some more traditional men still use. Think what sumo wrestlers wear, and you’ll get the idea.**

**A Yodaime is the fourth-in-line for yakuza boss.**

**Again, thank you everyone who has reviewed. You’re all so kind!**

**Well, go ahead! Read, enjoy, and please review and let me know what you think!**

* * *

“And you’re  _sure_ you’ll be alright?” Shin asked for what Reita was sure was the thousandth time.

“Shin, I’ll be _fine_.” Yankumi responded, also for the thousandth time, though her tone was starting to get a little annoyed. “It’s not as if it’s my first time on my own.”

“This is different.” Shin pointed out with a significant look at her midsection.

“Look, the baby isn’t due for a month-”

“Three and a half weeks!” Minoru chimed in happily as he moved bags into the car, then wilted as Yankumi shot him a scathing look.

“The baby isn’t due for another _month_ ,” Yankumi emphasized, then turned back to Shin, “the last day of school is tomorrow, and you’ll only be gone three days. And I’m not even going to be alone, because Saiga will be here!” The couple looked over as Reita gave a solitary wave. “Really, Shin. I’ll be _fine_.”

Shin gave her a skeptical look, then sighed unhappily. Suddenly, he reached behind his neck and fumbled with something.

“At least promise me you’ll wear this.” He instructed, moving around her and fastening what Reita thought was a silver chain around her neck.

Her eyes widened as she looked down. “You can’t give this to me!”

“I certainly can. And I want you to promise me you’ll keep it on until I get back.”

Irritation fading, Yankumi smiled up gently at her husband. “I promise.”

Sighing again, Shin kissed Yankumi one more time before heading to the car. Kuroda-san came over to give Yankumi a kiss on the forehead, and the rest of the yakuza minions waved.

Suddenly changing directions, Shin headed towards Reita with a purposeful stride.

“Reita, I’m trusting you to keep an eye on her.”

Reita grinned and gave a dismissive wave. “Yeah, I’ll try, but if she tries to eat every slice of watermelon in the city again, I’m not sure how much I can do.”

“I mean it, Reita.”

His smile faded as he heard the seriousness in Shin’s voice.

“I can’t be here if something happens, so I’m counting on you.”

Reita blinked, then suddenly thought of something. “Did you ask to stay?”

The annoyed sound Shin made as he glared at the heavens answered that question. “Apparently, if you call a meeting of the clans to talk about a possible threat, both the Kumicho and the Yodaime of each clan have to be present. Otherwise it’s an all-out insult or something.”

Tilting his head, Reita realized how worried Shin actually was.

“So, I want your word as a man that you will take care of her.”

Nodding slowly, Reita answered, “I give you my word. I’ll keep her safe.”

Shin bowed slightly, gave Yankumi one last kiss, then joined the rest of the Oedo clan in their black sedan.

Yankumi and Reita waved at the car as it drove away, then looked at each other.

“I’m starved.” Yankumi announced as they walked back to the house.

Unsurprised, Reita responded. “I’ll order food. Do you want ramen?”

“You know what sounds good?”

Reita looked over hesitantly. Sometimes Yankumi’s cravings were completely normal, but other times…

“Sushi.”

Oh. That was normal enough.

“ _In_ ramen!”

Nevermind.

Reita called Kumai Ramen, and after explaining to a shockingly understanding Kuma what Yankumi had requested (he found out later that with two children of his own, Kuma was well-acquainted with managing unusual cravings), shouted that food would arrive in forty-five minutes.

As they waited, Reita peered at the necklace Shin had given Yankumi, trying to see what the pendant was of, but only managed to make out a silver oval.

Giving up, he just decided to ask. “What was that thing that Shin gave you?” He motioned to the chain.

“Oh, this!” Yankumi pulled it out so Reita could get a better look. The chain was silver with a black ribbon running through it, and the pendant looked vaguely like a hand with three upright fingers, with an eye staring out from the center. “It’s called a ‘Hamsa hand’. It’s supposed to be a right hand warding off the evil eye.” She pulled down the lower lid of her eye and tried to sound spooky.

When Reita just raised his eyebrow at her, she grinned and explained, “It’s a sign of protection. His sister gave it to him after he left home in high school.” She smiled down at it fondly. “He’s never taken it off before.”

Reita glanced at the table. “He must be pretty worried to give it to you.”

“This whole drug-dealing in our territory business is just making him a little paranoid. I think he mainly wanted to give me something to remember him.”

Letting out a sudden ‘oof’, she glared at her baby belly. “As if you kicking me in the ribs every five minutes didn’t make me remember this is all his fault.” She pointed out grumpily.

Trying to stifle a laugh, Reita went to the door as Kuma called out that the food had arrived. Once invited in, Kuma explained that he had made his own special sardine ramen that his wife had demanded every day while pregnant with their first child, and that he had also brought some rice and soybeans, since Ami-chan had insisted that those were the best thing to eat in the last month of pregnancy.

Reita also suspected that Shin may have mentioned to Kuma that he was gone, as Kuma also asked several times if Yankumi was alright and if she needed anything because he was really only a few minutes away and it would be no trouble at all-

“Thank you, Kuma, but I am perfectly alright. Even better, now that your food is here. Tell Ami-chan thank you for the advice and that I will eat all of the soybeans just for her.” After he stanchly refused payment, declaring that it was his complete pleasure to help Yankumi’s baby grow big and strong, Yankumi sent him off with a smile and a wave, promising to stop by Kumai Ramen to let him know how the sardine ramen tasted.

True to Kuma’s promises, Yankumi found the fishy noodles delicious, and even generously offered a bite to Reita, who graciously told her that she could have every drop.

As they both finished dinner, Reita bid Yankumi good night and headed to his room. He instinctively checked his phone, but there were no calls or messages from his mother.

Sighing, he hesitated a moment before calling her cell. He knew she was still using that cell because her voice message kept changing, but besides that, he never really heard from her. He had been leaving voicemails every few weeks (since she never picked up) to let her know he was alright and what had happened recently. But as time passed with no response, it seemed more and more pointless, and he could feel his messages getting shorter.

“ _Hi! It’s Miku-chan! I’m probably out having fun, so leave me a message and we’ll chat soon!”_

_Beep._

“Uh, hey Mom. Just wanted to let you know everything’s going fine. I don’t know if you got any of my other messages, but graduation is in a week, so… just in case… I mean, most of the other parents will be there… but it’s not really a big deal…”

He paused for a moment to quell the impulse to cry, _“Actually, it is a big deal. It’s my high school graduation. I’ve gotten into three universities. I’m top of my class. I’ve started to care about school now because of the most ridiculous teacher ever and you don’t know any of it and it’s like you don’t even-”_

Taking a focused breath, he finished, “Anyway, it’s next Friday at one, if you can come. So, um… bye.”

He ended the call, then stared at the small device. Figuring he had resisted enough impulses today, he threw the phone across the room and listlessly watched it bounce off the bamboo wall.

 

The next day at school went as normally as a day in 3-D could go. It was the last day of school, and everyone was finding it hard to focus. A good portion of the class, including Junpei, Itsuo, Koji, and Tawara, had made it into at least one university, and the few who didn’t were already whining about the crazy cram schools their parents were making them attend over the summer, or already planning on interviewing for jobs.

Yankumi came in and told them all how proud she was, and how she knew they would all do well in life, and how they would each find their own paths, and choose their destinies, and change their stars, and follow their dreams, and all they had to do was strive to run toward that bright shining-

Her speech was interrupted by the bell, which signaled it was time for one last school assembly. Grateful that her passionate, yet nonsensical discourse had ended early, Reita followed the rest of his friends out to the gym.

There was the usual instructions on when to arrive for the graduation ceremony next week, how many family members could attend (Reita ignored the twinge that came with that), what recording devices were allowed, how they were organized by class and then last name, and what not to wear.

The Principal cleared his throat to regain the students’ attention. “Finally, we shall now announce the valedictorian who shall have the honor of addressing the whole audience and who will represent everything that Akado High stands for! Drumroll please…”

As only 3-A made drumroll noises (they were the principal’s pet class, so that came as no surprise to anyone), Principal Sawatari was handed an envelope (where were they – the Oscars?), and winked at a particularly smug-looking kid from 3-A, who had probably been groomed for this since he got into Akado.

“And the winner is…” The Principal beamed, pulling out the card slowly. “Sai– wait a minute.” He frowned and whisper-shouted at his vice-principal. “Did you hand me the wrong card?”

“N-no, sir. The final grades were tallied this morning, and that’s who it is.” The vice-principal shot a nervous look over to 3-D, who was all leaning forward in order to hear the conversation better.

The Principal motioned his minion closer. “ _It’s supposed to be Hiragashi!”_ He hissed angrily as the self-important brat grinned evilly in 3-D’s direction. The boys of 3-D simultaneously pulled down their lower eyelids and stuck their tongues out at him in response.

“I-I know, sir, but we added up the scores three times and Saiga beat him by over ten points!”

“Are you _sure?”_ Sawatari whisper-shouted again, then noticed the entire assembly staring at him. “Ahem, as I was saying, the valedictorian of Akado High School is…” His whole face soured as he announced reluctantly, “Saiga Reita from class 3-D.”

The auditorium erupted into cheers as Reita was quickly surrounded and hoisted on everyone’s shoulders. Flush with victory, Reita winked at 3-A’s Hiragashi, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to fling his pencil at Reita’s head. Which he did, though Reita easily dodged it and smiled all the wider at the simmering boy.

Back in their classroom, Reita was enjoying the pats on the back and the admiration and teasing from his classmates, who were extremely pleased at beating the cocky class of 3-A at something, as well as Yankumi saying that she always knew that if he simply applied himself and chased the sky or something, he was destined for greatness. Reita briefly contemplated telling her that before she had come along, he would never have dreamed of actually working hard to get good grades, but decided against it. Her ego was big enough.

The day ended with Reita walking out, still surrounded by his friends asking him what he was going to say in his speech and did he see how purple Principal Monkeyface had turned, and didn’t it just serve Hiragashi right for acting so annoyingly elite all the time.

After a while, Reita peeked around the corner down the block to where Yankumi usually waited for him so they could walk home together. He waved at her to let her know to go on without him, and she waved back in acknowledgement and starting walking.

Reita’s head was already turning back when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and heard wheels screeching nearby. A black van had rolled up next to Yankumi, who turned to look at it curiously.

It was then Reita was hit with a bad, bad feeling about this.

Almost in slow motion, he watched in horror as the van’s door slid open, and four men in ski masks leapt out. Before she could take more than a staggered step back, one of the men had pressed a white cloth to her face, and was already dragging her towards the van when she collapsed. The other three helped shove the rest of her in, then jumped back inside as the car sped off.

Reita’s heart plummeted.

Without looking, he grabbed Itsuo’s bike and hopped on, ignoring the questioning shouts from behind him.

He raced around the corner just in time to see a flash of black duck down a side-street. Pedaling faster than he ever had in his life, Reita kept track of the van though fleeting glimpses and slow traffic. A rush of hope rose in his chest as he saw the van turn a corner and heard brakes squeal. Flying down the sidewalk, Reita’s brain finally asked what he was going to do once he caught up with the van.

_One step at a time._

Rounding the corner and barely staying upright, Reita suddenly stopped. A blue Audi was sideways across the road, left headlight smashed and bumper detached, effectively blocking all traffic, but of greatest concern was the fact that there was no sign of a black van _anywhere_.

Breathing hard, and not just from the crazed bike ride, Reita scanned the area, once, twice, thrice, with increasing levels of panic. It was gone. He had lost it. Yankumi had been kidnapped and he had let it happen.

Snapping open his phone, Reita could barely make out the right name as he hit enter and started muttering “Pick-up-pick-up-pick- _up_ ” before the phone started dialing.

_Ring._

_Ring._

“Pick-up-pick-up-pick-up-pick-up- _ **pick-up-”**_

_Ring._

“Dammit, Shin _**PICK-”**_

“Reita, this had better be-”

“ _They took her.”_

Silence, then, “Who?”

“I don’t know. They were in a black van and had masks and a rag and I think they were waiting for her right there because that’s where she always waits for me and I followed them but-” Reita took a ragged breath.

“Shin, I lost them.”

The silence Reita heard terrified him – because it meant Shin was terrified as well.

“I’m leaving now, but Reita-” And he could hear how hard it was for Shin to say the next part. “I’m too far away.”

And it was the fact that Shin wasn’t shouting at him, wasn’t blaming him, wasn’t even asking him, but faced him with the bare facts that gave Reita the courage to respond.

“I’ll find her, Shin.” He swallowed, because he knew what he was promising. “I gave you my word.”

There was the longest of pauses, and then Shin simply replied, “I know.”

No ‘you’re just a kid’. No ‘you’ll never make it’. Reita had made a promise, and Shin trusted him to keep it.

The call ended, and Reita spent the next few minutes furiously texting Tawara, the other natural leader of his group.

_Yankumi kidnapped. Black van, no markings, 4 guys in masks, drugged? Send sum1 to cops, rest out to look 4 her._

And rather than the barrage of questions he expected, he only got one reply.

_Will do everything to help._

With a small amount of worry lifted from his shoulders, Reita began biking down the street, frantically trying to think of anywhere she could be.

Reita flipped through the incoming group texts desperately.

_Not at casino parking lot._

_None in the west part of town._

_Cops say they’ll look, but not much to go on._

_Nothing at South gambling house._

He swore mightily, then checked as a text from Tawara arrived.

_BLACK VAN AT ABANDOND RIVR WARHOUSE!!1!_

It took Reita a second to actually process what he had read, and another message immediately followed it.

_WAT 2 DO?????_

Snapping out of his shock, Reita quickly answered back.

_Stay put! Coming 2 u!_

Moving at what felt like an inhuman speed, Reita darted through traffic and alleys and back ways until he got to the warehouse on the Sakura River. The 3-D boys knew exactly where it was, as the elaborate graffiti on the side of the abandoned building had been one of their graduating pranks, back when they were first-years.

Crouching behind the parked black van, Tawara looked up with huge, frightened eyes when he heard the crunch of gravel, then motioned Reita over in obvious relief.

“Dude, I am so glad you’re here. I swear, I thought someone was going to sneak up on me and strangle me or something ever since I got here.” He whispered to Reita in a strained tone.

“Thanks for doing this.” Reita told him as he crouched by the vehicle.

“Hey, for Yankumi, anything.”

Reita didn’t quite know how to say thank you enough times, so he settled for a deep nod, which Tawara returned.

Peering around the van to stare at the warehouse, Reita asked if Tawara had seen anything.

“The van was empty when I found it, but the engine is still warm, and I hear voices in there, but nobody’s come or gone that I’ve seen.”

Turning around in order to acknowledge his answer, Reita was surprised to see members of 3-D quietly joining them, all looking slightly afraid, yet determined.

“I’m going to go check it out.” He told the growing group of boys.

“I’m coming with you.” Koji declared firmly as he snuck over to the van.

“Me too.” Itsuo added resolutely.

“Me three.” Tawara agreed, his voice only shaking a little.

“Alright, alright. You can all come, just move one at a time and _quietly!”_ He hissed the last word as someone accidently bumped the side of the van with a low thud.

Everyone froze, but after a few moments of no alarms sounding, 3-D let out its collective breath.

Staying as low as he could, Reita made his way over to the metal wall. Beckoning the rest of the group to start moving, he crept forward until he could see through the gap of the sliding door.

“She should be waking up soon. It only lasts for about an hour.” One of the group of at least twenty guys commented, looking at something out of Reita’s sight. Shifting so he could see the rest of the room, Reita had to bite his tongue as he saw Yankumi tied to a metal chair, facing away from him. Her head was lolled to one side and her pigtails had come loose, but he couldn’t see anything else.

“Well, let’s see if we can speed that up at all.” A well-dressed man with slicked-back hair commented, then slapped Yankumi across the face. Hard.

As her glasses skidded across the floor, Reita could feel the boys behind him tense when they heard the slap, but he waved them down before anyone could do something stupid.

The slurred curse word his teacher uttered signaled that she was becoming conscious. Deciding to risk it, Reita dashed across the opening and prayed no one saw him. When no one said anything inside, he peered back through the gap and eased around until he could see most of Yankumi’s face.

“Awake, are you?” The suit-clad asked, smiling down at his hostage.

Blinking blearily, Yankumi glanced around, then focused on the smug captor in front of her.

“Sato, I presume.” She said, leveling an even stare. Reita could see her flexing her wrists and testing the strength of the knots that held her.

Starting slightly, the man pressed his lips together. “It seems you are more intelligent than you appear. And that you have far more information than you should.”

When Yankumi said nothing, Sato began circling. “Word has it that you were behind the… closure of one of my facilities a few weeks ago.”

He leaned into Yankumi’s face, yet her expression remained unchanged (except for the red handprint appearing on her cheek).

“I hope you realize how very, very, _very_ expensive that little stunt was for me.” He started walking again. “An-island-in-the-Caribbean expensive. Now, I was really looking forward to that island, so imagine how disappointed I was when I discover that not only has one of my first facilities been shut down, but my manager and a good portion of my staff were arrested as well.”

His tone went from conversational to edged. “That was one of my prime facilities. It had the best possible location, along with the premiere ingredients, and a portion set aside for some very powerful financial investors.” The glare he turned on Yankumi was truly frightening. “The disruption you caused put me in a very difficult position. And I don’t like difficult positions. Not in the slightest.”

“Which clan offered to finance you?” Yankumi finally spoke, though his response was surprising to both her and their unseen audience.

Sato laughed – a deep belly laugh that suddenly turned contemptuous.

“The clans? Please. Do I look like I wear a fundoshi? Clans are a thing of the past. Ancient men holding on to even older traditions. Some of them are even worse than the police. Apparently the big one, whatever their name is, has something against new business opportunities, and this somehow makes all the others reject any decent prospects.” A hint of bitterness crept into his voice.

“Who’s protecting you then?”

Sato smiled crookedly at her. “Why, my dear, I provide my own protection. Family business, you see.” Turning over his shoulder, he called, “Brother dear, why don’t you come on out and meet the nice lady?”

There was movement from the large group of men inside, and Reita’s eyes widened as he recognized the leather-vested leader of the bike gang he had run into all those months ago.

“ _Shit!”_ He muttered to himself. At the questioning looks from all the boys who couldn’t see, Reita mouthed, “It’s Fujita.”

Similar swear words silently made their way through the group. Everyone knew how dangerous Fujita and the Black Skulls were, and seeing them here was just another sign of how bad this really was.

Fujita sauntered up next to Sato and looked down at Yankumi with a sneer that suddenly froze and turned to horror.

“ _You!”_ Was all he managed to get out as he pointed a trembling finger.

Sato stared at him as if he’d gone insane. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

A raspy laugh came from the chair. “I think he’s remembering that the last time we met, I kicked his gang’s scrawny little asses.”

Sato glanced from Yankumi to his brother, realization and rage slowly growing on his face.

“ _ **She**_ was the group of twenty men who barely defeated your invincible crew?!” He questioned, danger underlining every word.

Attempting to defend himself, Fujita protested. “It wasn’t just her! There was this other guy there too.”

Waving expansively, Sato spoke with heaping sarcasm. “Oh, so _two_ people! That’s better!” His glare returned. “Your entire pack was defeated by one man and a pregnant woman?”

Fujita visibly wilted. “Well, she wasn’t pregnant then.” He muttered.

“So just a regular woman defeated you. That’s comforting.” Sato held up his hand as Fujita opened his mouth. “Enough. I will deal with you later.”

He turned back to Yankumi. “Well, it turns out you’ve been the source of all kinds of problems in my operation. Regrettably, your meddling has negatively affected my reputation, and in this particular world, reputation is everything. Now, the only way to repair that damage is to make an example of someone. Unfortunately,” And here Sato smiled in a way that turned Reita’s stomach, “that someone is you.”

Sato waved vaguely at the gang members behind him. “Boys, let’s show her what happens when someone interferes with my business.”

Reita was surprised to see obvious hesitation from the group. Sato also noticed he wasn’t being obeyed, and fixed them with a piercing stare.

“ _Well?”_

“B-but, Boss, she’s…”

“We can’t…”

They all shrank back as Sato stepped towards them. He grabbed a pipe out of one of their hands.

“Fine. If you want something done right…”

He advanced towards Yankumi with a glint of madness shining through his mask of control.

“I think I’m going to enjoy this.” Sato informed her, and lifted the pipe above his head.

Before Reita even realized it, he was rushing towards the drug lord in what felt like the fastest and slowest moment of his life. He threw up his arm for protection as the pipe made its way down.

With a sudden _crack_ , the moment was surpassed with blinding pain.

“Sonuva _bitch!”_ Reita swore as both Sato and Yankumi stared at him in shock.

“Reita?” Yankumi asked in a disbelieving tone.

Sato seemed to be still frozen with surprise, so pushing away the temptation to swear more or possibly faint, Reita shouted for the boys outside.

“Get her out!”

There was a sudden flood of teenage boys that flowed around Yankumi’s chair and decided it would be faster to move her with the chair, rather than cut through the ropes. Koji led the effort, and in a terrifying parody of the valedictorian celebration that had happened earlier that day, Yankumi and her chair were hoisted up and out of the warehouse.

They were half way out the door before the group of men had realized what happened.

“Get them!” Sato screamed, and the gang members leapt to action. Grabbing what weapons they had on hand, the men burst out the door and quickly surrounded the makeshift rescue team.

Reita turned his head back and forth, simultaneously trying to ignore the pain in his right arm and find an escape route. Neither objective was going well. The only source of light was the inside of the warehouse, which pooled outside and illuminated their little group as a clear target.

Junpei was cutting through Yankumi’s ropes as the rest of the class faced outward in a protective circle.

“You… what the hell are you guys doing here?” Yankumi finally managed to say as one wrist came free.

“We’re protecting you.” Itsuo explained casually, as if this was an everyday event.

“But – but _why?”_ Yankumi demanded in confusion.

“Because we care about you.” Reita shouted in a voice far louder than he meant.

His classmates and his teacher stared at him as more and more men gathered outside their circle.

Lowering his voice, Reita muttered, “Not like Shin, don’t get any ideas.”

As Yankumi kept blinking at him, he found himself explaining, “But you’re the only teacher who’s ever actually cared about us.”

The boys of 3-D started agreeing as her other wrist and one leg was freed.

After a moment of staring at the sky, Reita added, “Only _person_ to care – for some of us.”

Junpei, Itsuo, and a few others nodded emphatically.

“So, just… just let us return the favor.”

Reita could have sworn that there was a shine of a tear on Yankumi’s face before being distracted by Sato reappearing.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A pitiful attempt at an army? Or some schoolboys playing at heroes?”

3-D said nothing. Reita peered into the darkness and cursed himself for thinking that the class of 3-D would be enough to rescue their teacher from a drug kingpin.

Sato examined their group. “You know, this is just the age I cater to with my product. How about this, anyone who would like to come into some money, live life on the wild side, and ultimately want for nothing, step away from the woman. You’ll get a steady job, some free product, and best of all,” His eyes narrowed dangerously, “You won’t. Get. Killed.”

The boys glanced at each other, but stood firm.

“It’s a generous offer. No? No one? Ah, well. You leave me no choice.” With a mirthless smile, Sato motioned to the men behind him. “Get ‘em boys.”

And this time there wasn’t a hint of hesitation. The gang members leapt forward, weapons raised and voices shouting, ready for a fight, as 3-D collectively swallowed and stood their ground.

 _Bam_.

Light flooded both groups, effectively blinding them. Everyone turned toward the illumination, squinting to see.

Reita thought he made out one human-sized shadow, standing in front of the pair of headlights that had interrupted the potential brawl.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The shadow advised in a casual drawl.

Yankumi blinked in confusion and tried to peer further into the light as Junpei cut her last leg loose.

“Oh?” Sato asked, redirecting his rage towards the newcomer. “And why is that?”

“Well, it can’t possibly end well for you.” A different voice commented, and a second shadow skipped over to join the first.

Yankumi was whispering to herself, but Reita wasn’t about to take his eyes off Sato quite yet. “That sounds almost like…”

“ _Really?_ ” Sato responded sarcastically. “Is that because I’m supposed to be frightened of some lights and two bozos?”

“Hey, there are three of us bozos!” Another, much larger, shadow appeared in front of the car.

“Nice one, Kuma.”

“Thanks, Noda!”

Yankumi was leaning so far forward, Reita thought she was going to fall. “It _can’t_ be…?”

“Actually there’s a little more than three of us.” A fourth figure spoke up.

“Well, there’s thirty of us, so what are you going to do about it?” Fujita yelled in a challenging tone.

Reita couldn’t quite tell, but he thought the shadows were smiling.

The first shadow raised one fist in the air. “This.”

He snapped.

And with that snap, lights flooded the scene from every direction, revealing far more than thirty shadows.

Sato, Fujita, and the rest of his men raised their hands up to shield their eyes, then kept turning as they realized how many people were actually there.

“Beating up on a pregnant lady and a bunch of kids?” With lights coming from all directions, they could actually see this speaker, located on the opposite side of the first shadows.

The guy next to him added, “Pretty pathetic for a bunch of grown men.”

“Odagiri?” Yankumi gasped. “Hayato?”

“Aren’t you guys supposed to value your manhood, or something?” Someone else added cheekily.

“Or at least they could pretend to fight fair.” A long-haired man chimed in from leaning against the warehouse wall.

“Nah, they’re drug dealers. Bunch of punks.” The young man on the other side of the warehouse door responded as the rest of the newcomers laughed.

“Takeda? Ogata? Kazama?” Yankumi squeaked her surprise as 3-D gradually gathered that these were allies.

“Who the hell are you people?” Sato roared, silencing the crowd.

The guy who Reita remembered Kuma called ‘Noda’ just smiled at the infuriated man.

“Us?” He asked innocently, then looked at the first guy who spoke with a smug grin. “Tell ‘em, Uchi.”

“ _We_ are her homeroom class.” Uchi announced in the same protective tone they had heard Yankumi use countless times.

As Sato, Fujita, and the rest of the men gaped, a guy with a few blonde highlights added, “A few years removed, maybe. But still.”

It seemed that all Yankumi could do was muster up names to say in a shocked tone. “Honjo?”

“So.” The guy named as Ogata pushed himself off the wall. “This is where you make a choice.”

“Either you surrender now…” Kazama offered.

“Or we get to kick your asses.” A rather tall man, who was wearing a hat that said ‘Tsuchiya’s Towing’, finished, cracking his knuckles loudly.

Glancing back and forth at the impenetrable wall of Yankumi’s former students, Fujita dropped his pipe with a loud clang. Similar sounds followed as the rest of the gang followed suit.

Sato was the only one unmoved. “And what are you going to do? Arrest us?”

Odagiri gave a crooked grin. “I won’t.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “But he might.”

A round-faced man wearing a police uniform stepped forward and nodded at the group’s center. “Yo, Yankumi.”

“Hyuga’s a cop?” Yankumi asked in a strangled tone. The officer shrugged with a smile, then pointed to the group of men behind him.

“Someone’s gotta make sure they set screw-ups like these guys straight.”

There was general laughter, and a few “Hey, who you callin’ screw-ups?” from the assembled men, but the mirth quickly turned efficient as Hyuga handcuffed Sato and handed out zip-ties, instructing volunteers how to use them and announcing that back-up was a few minutes away.

As the situation defused, greetings were called out across the lot, and the first four guys made their way towards Reita’s group.

Although he knew Kuma, Reita was still unsure of the other three, and decided not to let them in their circle until he was. Reita stepped in front of them and crossed his arms (which also might have been to support his arm, which was throbbing fairly strongly by now, but it was mostly to protect Yankumi). The men paused, then grinned at each other.

“You must be Reita.” Uchi guessed, and Kuma laughed when he saw Reita’s look of surprise.

“Shin’s told us a lot about you.” The fourth figure clarified. “I’m Minami, by the way.”

The guy named Noda added, “Says you remind him of him when he was young.”

“Hey, are you calling us old?” Kuma asked indignantly.

“Nope. Just Shin.” The three men laughed in a way that told everyone they were old friends, and that plus Yankumi calling their names from behind him, convinced him to step aside and signal the current class of 3-D to let them in.

“Uchi! Noda! Kuma! Minami! What are you guys doing here?” Yankumi asked as she flexed her wrists.

“Shin texted us and told us you’d been taken. So we figured we’d call in the cavalry.” Uchi explained.

“Good thing too.” Noda added.

“We could’ve handled it.” Koji declared.

“Yeah. Reita had a plan.” Tawara boasted, which caused Reita to look away for a moment.

“Thanks.” He said, before anyone could say anything else. He didn’t want his classmates know that there was no plan, that he honestly didn’t know what he would have done if Uchi and everyone hadn’t come.

When he looked up, he saw Minami, Uchi, Noda, and Kuma all smile and nod their acknowledgement that they understood what he was saying, and that they were glad to help.

Yankumi blinked back tears at them all proudly. “I am so happy to have such amazing students.” They all beamed until she continued, “Knowing that you all have come so far from where you were is an inspiration to me in the darkest places, because if you all can change, there is hope for even the most unlikely student in the universe.”

Minami frowned at her. “Yankumi, what are you saying?”

Smiling beatifically, Yankumi put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m saying that if we stick together, nothing can get in the way of how you- _**shit!”**_

Her grip on Minami’s shoulder must have tightened drastically, as he dropped to the ground repeating “Owowowowow!”

The rest of the classes started to gather around as Uchi stepped forward in concern. “Yankumi, are you alright?”

She took a few breaths, then announced in a slightly panicked tone, “I think my water just broke.”

Reita would have found the identical expressions of shock and terror hilarious if he wasn’t a part of it.

“C-can we fix it?” Koji asked in a trembling voice. Everyone around him, classmate or not, slapped the back of his head without looking.

“Okay, okay, okay, all we have to do is just…” Noda looked around with a face of pure anxiety.

“Take her to the hospital, idiot!” Odagiri shouted.

“Oh, right. TO THE CAR!!!” Noda shouted, then hustled Yankumi, along with Reita (whose hand she was clenching rather tightly), over to his vehicle.

Kuma, Minami, and Uchi followed, shouting, “MAKE WAY!!” and causing everyone who wasn’t helping hold the drug gang captive to get in their cars and prepare to caravan.

Once everyone was stuffed into the car, Noda threw himself into the front seat, grabbed the steering wheel, then froze.

“Crap, where’s the closest hospital?”

“Sakadiku Hospital. It’s up by the Ginza-Matsudori subway station on the left-hand side.” Minami answered quickly.

Everyone, including Yankumi, stopped and stared.

“What? My girlfriend’s a nurse there.”

With a collective shrug, the car’s occupants took this as a legitimate reason, and Noda screeched out of the warehouse lot, nearly missing the black van that had started all this.

In between cursing and crushing whoever’s hand she was holding (Uchi had mercifully relieved Reita of that duty), Yankumi asked, “Did someone call Shin?”

Over her head, the boys all looked at each other in alarm.

“I’m calling him right now, Yankumi.” Kuma soothed as he grabbed his cell.

However, after a few rings, they all heard Shin’s voicemail pick up. Staring at his former teacher almost fearfully, Kuma quickly complied after hearing Yankumi demand that he call again.

“Almost there, Yankumi.” Uchi called out.

Minami, who was also on his phone, added, “I called and let them know that we’re coming. They should have people out there for us.”

“But where’s Shin?”

“He’s on his way, Yankumi.” Reita reassured her, then prayed that Shin got at least one of the five messages Kuma had left.

They pulled up to the hospital, and just as Minami had said, there was a wheelchair and several nurses outside the emergency entrance. The nurses bustled her into the chair and were wheeling her inside within moments, asking questions all the way.

“Alright, how far along are you?”

“Th-thirty-six weeks.”

“How far apart are contractions?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Have you recently suffered any trauma?”

“Um… sort of.”

Yankumi turned to Reita and (thankfully) grabbed his uninjured arm. “Where the hell is Shin?” she hissed at him, and Reita saw for the first time that night (or really ever, now that he thought about it), a hint of real fear in his teacher’s eyes.

“ _Kumiko!”_

As Shin raced down the hall, Reita was sure that everyone present had the same overwhelming expression of relief that Yankumi did.

“Shin!”

He rushed over and kissed her full on the mouth for far longer than Reita and Shin’s classmates were comfortable with.

The nurse, however, was biting back a smile. “You’re the father, I take it?”

He nodded briefly before turning back to Yankumi, who looked as though she might cry. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Reita and everyone found me.”

“Thank God.” He rested his forehead against hers. In a whisper that Reita barely heard, he told her, “I thought I’d lost you.”

Reita suddenly thought that Shin might cry as well.

“Alright lovebirds, let’s keep going. The rest of you gentlemen can wait out here.” The nurse waved at the general lounge, then saw Reita’s arm and stopped.

“Did you hurt your arm?” She asked curiously.

“Huh?” Reita actually looked at his arm for the first time since the night began and froze when he saw how swollen it had gotten. “Oh. Uh, yeah. I did.”

Shaking her head, the nurse called over one of her coworkers, motioned at Reita, smiled at him, winked at Minami, then went to go help Shin and Yankumi.

Reita followed one of the attendants into a room, where he had to fill out a form by dictation (since he couldn’t quite write with his right hand anymore), was poked and prodded and asked all kinds of questions before the doctors declared his arm broken, gave him some painkillers and a splint, then started to apply a cast.

By the time he got back out into the waiting room (after letting the staff know that his ride home was actually in the hospital as well), he was surprised to see that it was full to the brim with former 3-D students. Many of them were in deep conversation with each other, and Reita heard subjects ranging from Yankumi’s antics for each year, to possible job opportunities when they graduate.

It took him a few moments to notice that strangely enough, everyone was eating ramen.

“Reita!” Tawara called, jumping up from his seat. “Are you okay? What’d they say?”

He shrugged, then winced a little. The painkillers hadn’t quite taken effect. “It’s a clean break. I get this,” he motioned to his cast, “for six to eight weeks. During summer. Great.”

“Hey, it could have been a lot worse,” Itsuo reminded him.

Koji bounded over. “Reita! You have got to try this ramen. It’s the best ramen in the whole _world!”_

Reita could see Kuma beaming from a corner, where he and his wife had set up a large pot and were doling out bowls and potstickers.

Ami quickly loaded him up with food, then told the boys to stop signing his cast until he had finished eating. Once he did finish, he could feel the drugs kicking in as his eyes drooped. The next thing he knew, Junpei was shaking him awake and pointing at the hallway.

Sitting up, he watched as Shin almost stumbled into the waiting room. He stood still for a long moment, then looked up with an uncertain smile.

“It’s a girl.” He breathed in a voice that hinted he still couldn’t quite believe he was a father.

After a second of silence, the whole room erupted into cheers. People swarmed over to give Shin congratulations, and Reita realized that Kuroda and the rest of the yakuza had arrived while he was asleep as Kuroda was smiling proudly and the minions were openly weeping.

Shin made a point to thank everyone who had come, and after sending a good portion of the crowd home, he smiled at the remaining group. Looking around he asked, “Would you like to see her?”

The emphatic nods and yeses made Shin laugh, and then they all trooped down the hall. Reita fell back, uncertain if he was invited or intruding.

Kuroda turned and noticed him. “Well, come on,” he waved.

Reita stared, then asked, “Really?”

“Of course! You’re part of the family too.”

The fact that he had spoken as if it was obvious, as if he didn’t need to put any thought into it, suddenly made Reita’s eyes well up.

 _Stop it,_ he commanded himself. _It’s just those stupid drugs, making you all loopy. Pull yourself together._

When Reita didn’t move, Kuroda tilted his head in concern. “Don’t you want to come?”

Nodding hastily, he tried to subtly swipe his eyes as he followed the rest down to Yankumi’s room.

Entering cautiously, the group tiptoed in as a happy, but exhausted Yankumi looked up at them.

“Hey, everyone.” She greeted, then her eyes lit up as Kuroda moved toward her bed. “Grandpa!”

Kuroda kissed her forehead, then beamed down at the small bundle in her arms. “And who is this?”

Smiling up at Shin, she held up the small pink blanket. “Everyone, we’d like to introduce you to Sawada Nanako.”

Crying unashamedly, Kuroda picked up his great-granddaughter. “It’s a beautiful name. Your grandmother would be proud to pass it on.”

After a few minutes of admiring the baby, Kuroda offered Nanako out for people to see. As Reita peered closer to see a small, scrunched up, red face, Yankumi gasped.

“Saiga! What happened to your arm?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s not a big deal.”

“Is it broken?” Minoru asked, leaning forward for a better look.

“Yeah, but the cast will come off in a couple weeks, so it’s fine.”

“It is not fine! You so valiantly sacrificed yourself and your arm to protect your number one teacher! It is a moment I will never ever forget in a thousand-”

Shin interrupted Yankumi’s increasing volume. “Kumiko, the baby.”

Chagrined, Yankumi cautiously looked at her daughter, then whispered, “Anyways, thank you, Saiga.”

Reita shrugged, then said in a slightly embarrassed tone, “No problem, Yankumi.”

Once everyone had held and cooed at the baby, a nurse came to shoo them out and let the new mother rest. Bidding farewell to Kuma, Ami, Uchi, Noda, Minami, and the others who had stayed, Shin and Reita followed the rest of the Oedo household back to their cars. Blinking in the early morning light, Reita elected to ride with Shin, since his car had more room.

As they drove, Shin took a breath, then stated, “Thank you, Reita.”

Reita, half-asleep already, looked over and repeated, “It’s not a big deal.”

“I mean it.” Shin’s tone was strange enough to make Reita sit up and pay attention.

“If you hadn’t been there… I might have lost both of them.”

“It was really Uchi and everyone who came and rescued us.”

“I know, and I’m so grateful for that, but you were the one who looked for her, who found her.”

The car came to a stop as Shin parked and turned off the engine. “So, thank you, Reita.”

Recognizing the solemnity in Shin’s gaze, Reita nodded and answered, “You’re welcome.”

He got out of the car, then froze. There was row upon row of serious looking yakuza members, all standing outside the Oedo home. Knowing what was expected of him, Reita moved to the side so they could all greet Shin.

To his surprise, he felt Shin moving him back to the center, then Shin went to stand next to Kuroda and the rest of the minions Reita knew.

“Saiga Reita.” Kuroda intoned, as Reita stared with wide eyes at the assembled crowd. “In our absence, our Yodaime gave you vital task of protect the Ojou of this clan. You swore that you would protect her and keep her safe.”

Reita suddenly wondered if he was in serious trouble.

“And when this vow was tested…” Kuroda broke into a small smile, “you kept your word. At the risk of your own life, you found and protected her in the face of great danger. It was your actions that saved the life of our Ojou and that of her unborn child. In recognition of this bravery, we of the Oedo clan, owe you a life-debt.”

To Reita’s complete shock, Kuroda, Shin, and everyone behind them knelt onto the ground.

“Should you ever need anything, we are yours to call upon. It is in this way that the gratitude of our clan is shown, and our honor is satisfied.”

The legions of men echoed in a thundering roar, “Our gratitude is shown! Our honor is satisfied!”

As they knelt further into the ground, Reita felt too overwhelmed to speak, and so simply bowed in return.

This seemed to be the sign for everyone to hop up and surround him like he was the guest of honor at a very rowdy party. It was only after a few hours of celebrating and many offers of sake (which Reita politely refused and the minions helped drink), that Shin finally snuck him off to his room and offered him some earplugs so that he could finally get some sleep.

After a nice, long nap, Reita awoke just in time to join Shin in visiting Yankumi. Nanako was currently sleeping, and the nurses directed the trio out to the garden by the front for a walk, saying that some exercise would do Yankumi good.

Shin was catching Yankumi up on the latest news about Sato and his gang, which he apparently got from a Captain Shinohara. His teacher gleefully giggled once she heard that Fujita couldn’t turn on his brother fast enough once he had heard the sentences for general violence versus drug dealing.

Reita sighed. _It’s nice that things are finally back to normal._

“Reita!”

He looked over, then froze with shock.

Or maybe not.

“ _ **Mom?!”**_

 


	9. Caring

**Chapter Nine - Caring**

**I just want to thank everyone who has read this story, and a special shout-out to all who reviewed. This story is winding down, but I think I’ll have one more chapter for epilogue purposes. =)**

**I’m also considering doing a story about the adventures of Nanako (having Yankumi and Shin as parents would be hilarious), but let me know if that sounds interesting at all to you.**

**Thanks again to everyone, and please read, enjoy, and review!**

* * *

 

“Reita!”

Reita couldn’t speak as his mother ran over to him and began fussing. “Reita! Are you alright? I was so worried!”

“What the… how… what are you doing here?” He finally managed.

“The hospital called me and said you had broken your arm and they needed my permission to give you painkillers because you’re still a minor and then I was so worried that I flew here and went to the house to see you, but you weren’t there, and it looked like it had been abandoned, so I talked to the neighbors and one of them said they hadn’t seen you for months, and then another one said that she remembered that you had been dragged off by some woman in glasses and pigtails and jerseys- AH!” Her speech was broken with a huge gasp as she finally started looking around.

“YOU!” She cried, pointing a finger at a thoroughly bewildered Yankumi, who was in fact wearing her glasses and jerseys. “You’re the one who kidnapped my son! I’m going to call the police and have you brought up on kidnapping charges, and you’re going to sit in a jail cell and rot for the rest of your-”

“Mom! Nobody kidnapped me!” Reita interjected as soon as he could fit it in.

Blinking, his mother turned to him in confusion. “What?”

“This is my homeroom teacher, Yan- I mean, Sawada-sensei.” Yankumi managed a small smile. “And this is her husband, Shin, who subs sometimes.” Shin nodded slowly.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, his mother leaned toward Reita and whispered, “Are you sure you weren’t kidnapped?”

Reminding himself to stay calm, Reita responded, “Yes, Mom. I’m sure I wasn’t kidnapped.”

“Then why did this lady drag you off?”

“Well…” Reita didn’t quite know where to begin.

“I thought that it’d be good for him to be somewhere with people looking after him.” Yankumi jumped in helpfully.

Or so she thought.

“How _dare_ you.”

Yankumi’s smile faded. “Huh?”

“How dare you imply that I abandoned my son. I am a good mother!”

“Mom, she didn’t say-”

“You’re not perfect! What makes you think you can do a better job raising my son?”

“I didn’t mean-”

“And who gave you the right to judge me? Who gave you the right to take my son away from his home and act like you’re his family? You’re not his family!”

“Mom!”

“Who? Come on tell me, who gave you the right?”

“ _You did!”_ Yankumi finally burst out, shocking everyone into silence. “You gave me the right to care about him when you left five months ago and didn’t so much as call him once! “

Everyone stared. Reita had no idea that Yankumi even paid attention to whether he talked to his mom or not. The thought that she worried about him that much was actually rather touching.

“What if he needed you? What if he wanted to show you something, to talk about something? What if he needed you to encourage him, to tell him the right thing to do? How would you have known if you never talk to him?” Her eyes were almost pleading. “That’s what a mother is for, isn’t it? To help guide their children when they need it. To be there for them.”

His mother stood speechless for a moment, then her jaw set and Reita knew she was going to use her best argument-winning phrase.

“You don’t know anything about my life. _My husband left me_.” She announced in a tone meant to shock and shame, then leaned back, daring Yankumi to respond.

“ _Reita’s father left him!”_

Reita’s mother stepped back in surprise at the force of Yankumi’s statement.

“But he doesn’t use it as an excuse to only care about himself.” After taking a breath, she continued. “Many people have hurtful pasts, but they use them to grow, to better themselves, to encourage others, to look out for people who need them.”

Deciding to change tack, Mrs. Saiga shouted, “My son is an adult! He doesn’t need people to watch over him all the time like a child.”

“You’re right.”

Reita’s eyes darted over to stare at Yankumi, and he noticed Shin doing the same.

“Your son _is_ an adult. Because the difference between adults and children is that children think only of themselves. They are only concerned with how they feel and what they want. Adults think of how their actions will affect others. They care about the people around them. And your son is one of the most thoughtful, kind, and caring people I have ever met.”

Reita stared. No one had ever described him like that. And never in such a sincere tone.

Shaking her head a little, Yankumi took a step closer. “And I’m just sorry that you missed out on seeing the man your son has become.”

His mother glared at Yankumi for a long while, then turned on her heel and marched off.

“Reita!” She barked. “We’re leaving.”

Torn, he glanced back and forth between his mother and Yankumi, who suddenly looked exhausted. Shin put his arms around his wife’s shoulders, then nodded at Reita.

Nodding back, Reita gave Yankumi one last look, then followed his mother to the waiting taxi. As soon as he got in, the car started moving and his mother started muttering to herself.

“Upstart little teacher, what does she know about anything? Nothing. She just thinks that because she has her perfect life, and a perfect family, she has the right to judge everyone else’s. She can’t judge me. She doesn’t even know me.”

Biting his tongue, Reita used up almost all of his patience as he listened to his mother berate his teacher in front of a stranger. He was sure that he taxi driver had probably witnessed worse things, but still.

He managed to contain himself until they paid the cabbie and walked into the house.

“And another thing, what can she possibly know about raising a child? She looks eighteen! Even if she had a kid she wouldn’t know the first thing about taking care of them, because all she knows is how life works in her little fantasy world where everything is perfect and no one has any problems, and-”

“Enough!” Reita shouted, unable to take any more.

Saiga Miku looked at him in utter confusion. “What?”

“You know _nothing_ about her. She does not think everything is perfect, and she definitely does not have a perfect life or a perfect family. And she just had a baby, and I know that she is going to be a _great_ mom!”

As she blinked at him, Reita tried to explain.

“Look, Yankumi has a place where she is respected and loved and valued, but instead of staying there, she _chooses_ to be a teacher and spend her time with screw-ups like me. Teenage boys who hate teachers, who hate math, who hate most adults, and she comes to school every day because she cares about us. She doesn’t have to – I’m sure she could have any class she wants, but she chooses to teach the rejects, the troublemakers, because she, for some reason, thinks we’re worth caring about.”

Surprised at the tears he felt welling up, he went on.

“You remember the night I didn’t come home, and I said I spent the night at Tawara’s?”

His mother nodded cautiously.

“Well, I didn’t. I got into a huge fight, and I really don’t know what would have happened, but Yankumi came to save me. I had done nothing but sneer and laugh and talk back to her, and she risked her life, _literally_ , to come rescue me. And she and Shin, they took me to their home, and patched me up, and fed me, and sent me home. You know why I started staying with them? Because, after you left, Yankumi showed up here and wanted to ask you why I had been out of sorts lately.”

He found himself laughing.

“Out of sorts! She came to my house to find out why I was out of sorts! Do you know how crazy that is? No teacher in my entire life had even cared if I was out of sorts, besides to complain about it, and none of them have ever been concerned enough to come to my house and ask about it! And when she found out that I was by myself, she took me to her house and into her family. And they have the _weirdest_ family I have ever seen. But you know what? It works.”

Reita looked at his mother, trying to get her to understand.

“Only like, three of them are actually related, but they all love each other, Mom. And they act like it. They care about each other more than any family I’ve ever seen. The strangest thing is that most of them knew nothing about me, but they made me part of their family anyway. They asked about me, worried about me, and they had no reason to! They gave me a family because I didn’t have one.”

Finding her voice again, his mother stepped in. “Now you wait just one second. You have me.”

“But you _left_ , Mom. Just like Dad left.”

Voice wavering, she objected, “What your father did was completely different. I was coming back.”

“ _How was I supposed to know that?”_

Taken aback by the emotion in his tone, Reita’s mother stared as he continued.

“How was I supposed to know you were ever coming back? If the hospital hadn’t called you, would you even be here? Did you know that my graduation is on Friday? Did you know that I got into three universities? That I’m valedictorian? That I actually started caring about my future?”

His mother opened and closed her mouth, trying to come up with a response.

Shaking his head, he asked a question that he already knew the answer to. “Did you listen to any of my messages?”

“I… I was going to, but there were so many, and I thought that I should listen to them in order, but I didn’t know how to do it on my phone, and I just didn’t-”

“Enough.” Reita suddenly felt exhausted. “If there’s one thing I learned from Yankumi, it’s that you sacrifice for the people you care for. And if you can’t be bothered to listen to any messages from your only child, don’t you _dare_ say anything bad about her.”

A long moment of silence stretched out between them, as Reita’s mother nearly gaped at him.

“What happened to you?” She asked finally.

Reita thought a moment. What had happened to him?

“I grew up, Mom.” And for the first time in his life, he didn’t think it was a bad thing. “Because of her. And her family.”

As he wondered if his mother had always been so small, he realized that she staring at him as if she was really seeing him for the first time.

Wincing at the pain in his arm, he realized that he probably should have taken another dose of medicine an hour ago.

He sighed, then said wearily, “I’m going to bed. Night.”

As he walked to bed, he felt too exhausted to think of what had just happened, of how that was the most he had ever said to his mother at one time, how that was the most passionate he had ever gotten about anything, and about how he actually missed his futon in the spare room of the yakuza headquarters. He took his next dose of painkillers, then fell into bed, asleep before he hit the pillow.

Reita slept for the entire next day, and finally awoke feeling vaguely normal. After a trip to the bathroom, he started rummaging around his room, dusting things off and straightening things up. A timid knock at the door caused him to look up.

“Reita?” His mother opened the door a crack. “Can I come in?”

Nodding slowly, he watched as his mother came in and gingerly sat on his bed.

“I’ve, um, been doing some thinking.” She spoke mostly to her hands, folding and unfolding in her lap.

Reita started slightly, then after a moment, gently sat on the bed as well, afraid to interrupt whatever strange event was happening.

“And, I think that maybe… maybe I wasn’t entirely fair to you.” At Reita’s quizzical look, she continued, “When – when your father left, it… I was afraid that nobody would ever care about me again, that nothing would make me feel good again. So I guess I kept chasing things that I thought would help. But every time, after a while, I’d feel like it was going to disappear too, so I left first. And, I’ve been doing that for so long, I guess I never stopped to think of what it did to you.”

She glanced up uncertainly, then looked back down at her hands. “You were always so independent, and you never really said anything, so I just… I didn’t think that it affected you that much. And it’s hard to hear from a complete stranger that I was being… well, childish, I guess, and to realize…”

Meeting Reita’s gaze directly, she finished, “I realized that she knew you a lot better than I did. She sounded so… _proud_ of you. And I just felt like… like she had stolen you from me.”

Reita opened his mouth to speak, then stopped as his mother grabbed his hand. “But after a while, it hit me. She didn’t steal you from me. I gave you up.” Tears started collecting and falling as she continued, “I gave you up because I wanted something fun and comfortable, and you deserve so much more than that. And I am so, so sorry, that I wasn’t the mom you wanted.”

Reita reached out and embraced her as she started crying in earnest.

“Of course you’re the mom I wanted. You’re my mom.” He grinned at her a little, then bit his lip. “I just wish that you wanted to be that mom more often.”

Nodding emphatically, she agreed, “I know. And I will be! I’m going to try so hard to be a great mom! To be… to be _your_ mom.”

They exchanged watery smiles, then Miku wiped her eyes, cleared her throat, and thought back to earlier in the day. “Wait, when you said she just had a baby… did she _just_ have a baby?”

Breathing a ghost of chuckle, Reita nodded.

“Oh God! I said such awful things to her! At a hospital! We need to go get her the best baby present in the history of baby presents. I know just where to start looking. There’s this great baby gift store downtown…”

.

.

.

They were late for his graduation. Reita wished he was surprised.

His mother had, minutes before leaving, had a crisis of conscience and wondered all at once if Yankumi would see the baby gift as bribery, did these earrings really go with this dress, and oh God, Yankumi probably hated her after what she said and she just couldn’t go and face her when she had practically accused her of committing a felony! Kidnapping is a felony, right?

With a loud sigh and an internal reminder that people don’t change overnight, and that she was actually trying very hard to be more responsible and reasonable, Reita reassured her that Yankumi couldn’t hate anyone, she looked fine, and he was fairly sure kidnapping was a felony, but that really wasn’t all that relevant here.

They finally left at the same time graduation started, so Reita really hoped that 3-A through 3-C took their time.

His mom snuck into the back rows as he eased his way down the aisle and into his seat. After nodding and smiling at his friends, who were all present and graduating, he took a glance at Yankumi, who looked torn between being tearfully joyful and downright dejected. Her eyes lit up when she saw him, then faded almost immediately.

Before he could ask Tawara what was going on with her, Koji’s name was called for him to go receive his diploma. Reita clapped along with everyone as each of their classmates proudly went onstage for their proof of graduation. Once everyone had been announced and presented, the Principal got up with a face that looked like he had been sucking lemons, and muttered into the microphone that it was time for the valedictorian’s speech, which would be given by… saigareitafrom3-D.

Despite the mumbled name, Reita still received applause as he walked toward the stage.

Trying to be subtle, the Principal attempted to pass him some index cards. “Here, Saiga. Use this. You obviously don’t have anything-”

Reita resisted rolling his eyes and made his way to the podium. He looked out at everyone gathered there. The smirks of 3-A. The genuine smiles from 3-D. The proud tears from his mom. Not quite trusting himself to look at Yankumi yet, Reita took a breath, then started his speech.

“I don’t care.”

There were confused looks in the audience, as Reita heard a choking sound from the Principal’s chair.

“I don’t care about school, I don’t care about my future, I don’t care about good grades, and I especially don’t care about teachers.”

He waited until he was sure the Principal had turned purple with rage, then continued.

“At least, I didn’t. Until this year.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Yankumi look up slowly.

“This year, I watched as a ridiculous teacher did the impossible.” He nodded at his classmates. “She made us care. She made us care about being good friends. About trying our hardest in school. About being good examples for others.” He saw Junpei and Itsuo nodding along.

“And the only reason she could do all of this is because she cared. For the first time in our lives, we had a teacher who only cared about us. Not about our grades, our hair, how we talked, or what our families were like. She cared about us as people, because we were her students, and that meant something special to her.”

He noticed the other classes and teachers and gather adults turn to look at this weird teacher with dorky glasses and red jerseys in curiosity.

“And it is only because she cared for us, had faith in us, that we are all here today. It is that care, and that faith, that will help us live rightly, fight proudly, and stay loyal friends as we go out to live our lives.”

Turning to face Yankumi, who now looked both overwhelmed and bewildered, Reita finished. “Yankumi! From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.”

As he and his classmates bowed in unison and shouted, “Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you for being our teacher!”, the people around them started to applaud, recognizing the importance of the moment.

Reita peeked from his bow and saw Yankumi trying to smile and cry at the same time.

After the ceremony was over, Reita made a point of finding Shin to thank him as well.

Shin smiled and told him he was very welcome. Then they both watched as Reita’s mother made her way over to Yankumi to give her the baby gift, and to apologize. Shin’s eyebrows rose in amusement as the next few minutes passed with both women bowing and apologizing to each other for their rudeness and presumption with the bows growing deeper and the apologies growing longer.

Sure one of them was going to give up soon, Reita turned to Shin and asked, “Hey, I was wondering. Why did Yankumi look so depressed before graduation?”

“Ah. She was fairly certain you hated her.”

“ _What?”_ Reita stared at Shin and could only ask, “Why?”

Shin shrugged. “She analyzed everything she did, and concluded that she was completely out of line and obviously forced you to live with us as a prisoner the whole time.”

Reita shook his head in disbelief.

“I also believe that your speech was a huge shock to her.”

“A huge shock? I was just describing was she did! Does she seriously not think other people do things for her, for a change?”

Grinning crookedly, Shin looked over at his wife and remarked, “When I asked her to marry me, she asked why.”

“Seriously?!”

Shin nodded.

“Seriously what?” Yankumi asked, appearing out of nowhere.

Used to her sudden entrances, Reita repeated in an incredulous voice, “You seriously said ‘why’ when Shin asked to marry you?”

“Well, it took me by surprise-”

“We’d been dating for years.” Shin whispered to Reita.

“I thought you were throwing away your life-”

“I had just graduated from law school.”

“And I didn’t know what my family would say-”

“They had been begging me to live there for ages.”

Fully flustered, Yankumi made a face and shouted, “Would you stop that? It was a reasonably response at the time!”

Shin simply grinned and threw his arm around his wife, kissing her forehead. “It’s alright, Kumiko. We know you think you’re the only one who can sacrifice for others.

Throwing her hands up in disgust, she ducked out of Shin’s embrace and walked over to Reita.

“I see you and your mom talked.” She broached the subject gently.

Reita looked over to see his mom listening intently to some of the other parents, and he thought she might have been taking notes.

Smiling slightly, he nodded. “Yeah. Things have been… better. She’s really trying hard.” He glanced up at Yankumi, then added, “Thanks, by the way.”

Puzzled, Yankumi asked, “For what?”

“For getting through to her. I don’t think anything else would have done it.” He then realized how much else he needed to thank her for.

“And for… you know. Taking me in, and doing all the stuff you didn’t need to, and-”

“Hey,” She interrupted in a light rebuke. “That’s what family’s for.”

He looked up with hope in his eyes. “Family?”

“Family.” Shin joined in solemnly.

Reita looked over at his mother, who saw him and gave a wide smile, then he turned back to Yankumi and Shin, who were also smiling at him.

And for the first time in long time, Saiga Reita felt whole.

 


	10. The Beginning

  **Chapter Ten – The Beginning**

**The epilogue. Call me a sap, but I do love giving people happy endings. =)**

**Thank you to everyone who read this story, and an extra special thanks for all of you who reviewed.**

**If you’ve been a silent reader, take a moment and let me know what your favorite part was, things you’d like to see for Nanako’s story, or anything else! Thank you all so much for reading! I love you all!**

* * *

Reita knew there was something was strange about his life, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it until a month or two after he had graduated. He and his mom were sitting around the kitchen table, talking about the pros and cons of the different universities he had been gotten into. There were two that were fairly far away, one of which didn’t really have the academic program he wanted, and while the other one had a few great courses, it was rather expensive. The nearer one, Aoyama University, wasn’t cheap either, but offered some good scholarship opportunities.

“If I went to Niigata, I’d have to live in a box and eat nothing but ramen.” Reita remarked, looking up from the brochure.

“Well, it’s not like you eat anything but ramen anyways,” his mother joked, laughing at herself and eliciting a smile from Reita.

It was that moment, when Reita looked up to meet his mother’s grin, that he realized what felt so strange about his life.

He _liked_ it.

He liked spend time with his parent, talking and remembering and telling her other stories about Yankumi. He liked being able to come home and tell her things, to just know that if he wanted to talk to her, he could.

He was about to try and find a way to articulate that when his mom’s phone rang.

“One sec,” she said, then answered. “Hello? Yes, this is she. Oh! Yes, I-I did. Really? Well, I…” Her voice faded as she headed to her room. Reita shrugged and went back to trying to decide how much he wanted to eat packaged ramen for the next four years of his life.

When he glanced back up, his mom was standing in the doorway, staring at the floor in a vaguely shocked manner.

“Mom? What’s going on?”

“I… I got a job.” She looked up at him in disbelief.

“Huh?”

“I… I applied for this position at a magazine in Osaka, mostly because it was my dream job, but I never thought that it would actually… that it was even possible… They said that they read my sample article and really liked it and want me to start in two weeks.”

“That’s great!”

“But…” Her voice and eyes became unsure. “I’d have to move to Osaka. So… I don’t know if I should take it.”

And it was that tone, that hesitancy, that helped Reita realize what his mom was trying to say – that she was putting their relationship, putting _him_ , ahead of something she wanted. For perhaps the first time in Reita’s memory.

It was that epiphany that allowed him to say, “I think you should go.”

Saiga Miku glanced up in both surprise and growing hope. “Really? I didn’t know if…”

“If it’s a job you really want, you should go for it.”

Blinking back tears, she hugged Reita tightly, then abruptly pulled back. “Wait. If I move, where will you stay?”

Reita shrugged. “It’s college. That’s usually when kids move out anyway. I can crash with Tawara or someone until I figure it out.”

Miku looked down, then slowly offered, “I think… I would feel better if you stayed with the Sawada-senseis.”

Reita could only stare in utter surprise.

“I just… I know that they’d take care of you. Do you think you could ask them?”

Biting back a smile, Reita nodded. “Yeah. I’ll ask.”

.

.

.

After his calls went unanswered, Reita just decided to head over to the Oedo house and ask in person. Since the school year was over, he figured that at least Yankumi would be home. As he walked up to the door, he took a deep breath in to just enjoy the calm and tranquility that the front garden inspired.

The illusion of serenity shattered as soon as he knocked on the door.

There was a series of panicked shouts and pounding footsteps from inside, then some urgent whispers, then the door slid open slowly, revealing Yankumi, Shin, Kuroda-san, Tetsu, Minoru, Wakamatsu, and Makoto all lined up and starting to bow. At least, he thought it was all of them. Shin was the only one dressed normally. Everyone else was dressed in what Reita assumed they thought were civilian clothes.

Kuroda was still wearing his kimono, but the minions were all wearing white suits, black open shirts, gold chain necklaces and sandals that couldn’t have screamed ‘yakuza members’ any louder. Yankumi was wearing a matching tweed suit jacket and skirt that almost made her look like a studious librarian, not the weird Yankumi he knew.

As he stared at this completely bizarre scene, Yankumi looked up from the bow and shouted, “Oh good, it’s only Saiga.” The other yakuza members glanced up and started to smile until Yankumi continued, “Alright everyone! Back to cleaning! We only have a short time, so move move _move!_ ”

“What... is going on?” Reita managed to ask.

“Oh! The Sawada-sans are visiting, so we’re making sure everything looks perfect and normal!” Minoru smiled widely. “That’s why we’re dressed legit!”

“Legit?” Reita repeated in confusion.

“Normally.” Shin supplied, then rubbed his face in resignation.

Minoru nodded and smiled even wider.

Trying to muster up a smile of his own, Reita responded, “Oh. I… see.”

A loud cry echoed from upstairs.

“Minoru! The baby!” Yankumi yelled from down the hall.

“I got her!” He shouted back, then shot Reita and Shin an enthusiastic thumbs up before leaving.

Shin sighed loudly and Reita glanced over.

“So… what’s going on again?” He asked.

“My parents are coming over.”

“And what’s the big occasion? Besides the baby, I mean.”

“Well, they’ve never come over before.”

Reita looked up in surprise. “Never?”

“We usually go over to their place. It’s nice, it’s in town, it’s not in yakuza territory, and it’s…” Shin shrugged, “normal. But with the baby here, they insisted they come to us. Hence why everyone is running around like crazy. I think they want to impress my parents, or something.”

“Shin! Is this bathroom clean enough? Which way should the toilet paper go? Roll up from below, or down from top? Do we need more incense? I think we need more incense. Tetsu! Bring me incense now!”

Sighing loudly, Shin patted Reita’s shoulder and told him, “She’s spinning out. I’d better go help.”

Reita nodded, then watched Shin head down the hallway, shouting, “Kumiko! It already smells like a friggin’ temple in here! More incense is the last thing we need!”

Shaking his head with a small smile, Reita headed to a different part of the house, keeping an eye out for anything he could do to help. Turning a corner, he saw Minoru holding Nanako and cooing at her.

“Aw, you’re a beautiful Ojou-chan, aren’t you? Yes, you are. Look! There’s Reita! Say hello!” Taking her tiny hand in his huge one, Minoru waved at Reita.

His smile growing a bit, Reita walked over and looked at the baby. She had a large amount of short, dark hair, and wide, brown eyes that stared intensely at everything.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Minoru asked proudly. Wanting to be polite, and not really knowing what most babies looked like anyway, Reita nodded in agreement. A smoky smell reaching his nose, he looked around.

“Is something burning?”

Minoru gasped. “My fish! Oh no! Quick, take Ojou-chan!”

“Wait, what? Oh no, I don’t think…”

Ignoring Reita’s shocked protests, Minoru placed the baby in Reita’s arms and scurried off to the kitchen to rescue his cooking fish.

Frozen in surprise, Reita stared at the infant, who stared right back.

Clearing his throat nervously, Reita felt like he should say something. “Well hello there, little… baby. Person. Thing.”

Nanako seemed unimpressed.

“I’m, uh, Saiga Reita. I’m a, well, I used to be a student of your mom’s, but now I guess, I’m more of a… friend. I think.”

Nanako furrowed her eyebrows, seemingly contemplating this new information. Suddenly coming to a decision, she waved her arm around regally.

Unsure of what arm waving meant in baby culture, Reita hesitantly reached out to hold her tiny hand. She responded by grabbing onto his finger, which Reita took to be a friendly gesture.

“You’re not so scary for a baby.” He observed, then winced as her grip tightened. “Hey! Ow! I need that finger!” As he tried to release his captive digit from her surprisingly strong grasp, he muttered, “Well, at least we know you weren’t adopted.”

A giggle came from the doorway. “I think she likes you.”

Shaking his head as he looked up, Reita started, “Oh, I doubt…”, then stopped suddenly.

Standing before him was a girl about his age, with reddish hair and light brown eyes, grinning openly at his predicament. Coming forward, she smiled at Nanako, who Reita believed looked very pleased with herself.

“Can I hold my niece?” She asked, looked up at Reita, who was still somewhat stunned, for some reason.

“Huh?”

“My niece. Can I hold her?”

“Oh, uh, yes, of course.” As he glanced back and forth between the girl and the baby, he wondered how people actually transferred babies.

Laughing again, the girl seemed to understand his trouble, and slid her arms underneath baby Nanako and lifted. Nanako looked to be content with the exchange, but maintained her iron grip on Reita’s finger, probably to prove that she could. It was then that the girl’s words actually made it to Reita’s brain.

“Wait… niece? Which means that you’re…”

“Oh, I’m sorry. How rude of me. I’m Sawada Natsumi.” She bowed slightly, then straightened as Nanako glared in disapproval of the motion.

“Sawada? So you’re Shin’s…”

“Sister. Yeah. Little sister, as he constantly reminds me.” Natsumi rolled her eyes with a small smile. “And you are?”

“Oh, I’m Saiga Reita.” He attempted to bow with his hand still captive, but felt rather ridiculous.

Natsumi looked up from shifting Nanako to a better position. “Wait… Saiga Reita? _The_ Saiga Reita?”

Looking around in confusion, he asked, “Is there more than one?”

Laughing again (she had a really beautiful laugh, Reita realized), Natsumi explained, “No, it’s just that Onii-chan told me that a Saiga Reita had rescued Yankumi from a gang and saved her life. Is that true?”

Now, usually when people asked him about the events of the end of the school year, Reita tried to make it clear that he had received a lot of help, that it was really a group effort, and that they owed their lives to all of Yankumi’s other students. But suddenly, this didn’t really seem like a good time to explain all that.

“Well, yes. It is true. I mean, I had some help, but really, I organized most of the whole thing. So yeah, that was me.”

Eyes widening in amazement, she asked, “So you really faced down a drug kingpin and a motorcycle gang?”

“Yep. They weren’t that scary, when you got down to it.”

“And you swooped in front of a thousand guys and sprinted Yankumi to safety?”

“Um… more or less. Yeah.”

“Wow. That’s really amazing.” And with a look of such obvious admiration, Reita couldn’t help but smile back, despite Nanako furrowing her brows at him.

“Natsumi! Natsumi! There you… are.” Shin poked his head into the room, then slowed his speech as he glanced back and forth between the two smiling occupants.

“Oh, hey Onii-chan.” Natsumi greeted, which did not lessen the look of suspicion Shin had.

“Natsumi, can I talk to you for a minute?” Shin asked in a deceptively calm voice.

“Sure.” Giving Reita one last smile, Natsumi went over to join her brother outside the doorway. Reita didn’t want to be obvious, but he did rather want to hear what was being said. Leaning as unobtrusively as he could, he still could only make out bits of sentences.

“… just talking. And what do you care?”

He heard Shin’s voice speaking urgently.

“Oh come on. Besides, you said no one in _your_ class.”

Reita took a step closer.

“… two years older than him!”

He could see Natsumi raise both her eyebrows at her brother.

“Seriously? _Seriously?_ _You’re_ giving me the age difference excuse?”

Shin’s tone took on what might have been chagrin. “I’m just saying,” he muttered.

“ _I’m_ just saying! You and Yankumi were telling me all about how proud of him you were, and how well he’s done, and how bright you think his future is.” She put the hand that wasn’t holding Nanako on her hip. “What’s changed?”

Shin furrowed his eyebrows at her and peered around the door frame. Reita made a show of being very focused on his phone.

Coming back and letting out a loud breath, Shin mumbled, “Nothing.”

Satisfied, Natsumi readjusted Nanako, who was also sporting a look of approval. “Exactly. Now, either you can let me talk to this very nice boy, who you actually approve of, or I can revisit the idea of dating one of your classmates.”

Shin glared. “They’ve all got girlfriends.”

“Noda doesn’t.” Natsumi countered.

Reita slowly peeked around to see Shin’s eyes widen. “You wouldn’t.”

“I certainly could.” After a moment, Natsumi took pity on him. “Oh, don’t look so grumpy, Onii-chan. Just let me talk to him, okay?”

Shin took a moment, then gave up. “Has anyone told you that you’ve gotten feistier since you moved out?”

“Just taking after my big brother.” She teased.

Giving Reita one last dubious look, Shin attempted one last warning. “Alright. Just don’t do anything…” He paused, searching for the word.

“Crazy?”

“Yeah. Nothing crazy.”

“Like marrying my high school teacher?”

Shin shot her a caustic look.

Natsumi held up Nanako in front of her and spoke in a high-pitched voice. “Daddy! Don’t glare at my favorite aunt! She’s just trying to find true love – like you and Yankumi!”

Raising an eyebrow, Shin said, “Don’t use my daughter as a prop, Natsumi.”

“But I’m such a cute prop! You can’t resist my powers of adorableness!”

Shaking his head, Shin couldn’t help a grin. “Alright. Nothing crazy.” He pointed as emphasis.

Raising her hand, Natsumi smiled and affirmed, “Nothing crazy.”

As she came back into the room, Reita tried to look as non-eavesdropping as possible.

“Hey, sorry about that.”

“No problem at all. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”

“Oh, don’t mind him. He just needs his tail pulled every now and then. Sister privilege.” She confided, and Nanako spoke a firm, “Ah,” in agreement.

“So, uh, what do you do? I mean, are you working, or…?” Reita tried to hide how much he wanted to know everything about her.

“I’m actually a student at university.”

“Oh really? Which one?”

“Aoyama University. It’s actually fairly close to here. What about you?”

Suddenly finding great clarity in which university was the most attractive, Reita only took a moment before he answered, “Me too!”

Natsumi stared in confusion.

“I mean, I’m going to Aoyama too. In the fall. As a first-year. Soon.”

“That’s great! It’s a really good school. I think you’ll like it.” Natsumi encouraged, then turned as her name was called from another room.

“Oh, I suppose we should share Nanako with everyone else.”

Reita took that as a sort of dismissal. “Yeah, you guys seem pretty busy. I should probably go.”

“Have you met my parents?”

Blinking at the suddenness of the question, Reita could only answer, “No.”

“I think you should. C’mon.”

Grabbing his hand with her free one, she pulled him out of the room. As he followed Natsumi down the hall, he thought that he would be completely content following her anywhere.

And that was how he met the elder Sawadas, who were not nearly as frightening as the minions had made them out to be. Mrs. Sawada was very nice, and spent much of the time holding Nanako and talking to Yankumi about mom stuff. Kuroda-san and Mr. Sawada seemed to find a lot in common in how they believed the new generation differed from the older one, and Kuroda-san made an effort to ask Shin and Reita what they thought about generational differences.

Reita offered to leave before lunch, in case there wasn’t enough food, but Wakamatsu insisted that Minoru always made too much, and Yankumi said that she kept forgetting he didn’t live there anymore and had set a place for him anyways. That led to Mrs. Sawada inquiring about how he had come to live there, which ended in Yankumi telling a very poorly edited version of Reita’s rescue that sounded more like a Michael Bay movie than what had actually happened. Everyone at the table looked thoroughly impressed (except Nanako, who was furrowing her brows much like Shin had earlier, possibly doubting the reliability of her mother’s storytelling skills).

After an hour or so of general conversation, Nanako decided to loudly declare her own need for lunch, and the Sawada family took it as a sign that they should probably get going. Reita bid goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Sawada, then made his way over to Natsumi.

“It was really nice to meet you, Reita.” She told him, smiling softly.

“It was… great meeting you.” He answered, and thought he saw her blush in response.

They stared at each other for a few moments, then heard Natsumi’s parents calling her.

“So, I guess we’ll see each other around.” She offered.

“Yeah. I’m sure we will.”

She gave him one last smile as she headed out the door. Reita turned his head to watch her go, then caught sight of everyone else at the Oedo house beaming at him down the line (except for Shin, who still looked rather skeptical).

The sensation of being smiled at by half a dozen people quickly became overwhelming.

“What?” He demanded, which was apparently a sign for everyone to come over and pat him on the back while Yankumi ruffled his hair.

“Oh! You’re growing up so fast, Saiga!” Yankumi declared.

Reita cast about for some way to distract them from the teasing that he was sure was coming, then remembered the whole purpose of his visit.

“Wait! I have something to ask you!” He said, then sighed in relief as they all stepped back and looked at him expectantly.

“Well, um, I’ve decided to go to Aoyama University,” He began, then was interrupted with a loud “Congratulations!” from Yankumi as Shin’s look of suspicion grew.

“That’s not the news.” Reita admonished.

“Oh. Sorry. Continue.”

“Anyway, I was going to stay with my mom, but she actually got a job in Osaka-”

“That’s great!” Yankumi shouted, then wilted under the looks from Reita and Shin. “Sorry.”

“So, she got a job in Osaka, but she’s got to move in two weeks, and I was wondering if…” He realized that all the yakuza members were leaning closer to him with every word. “I… could… stay… here.”

This time everyone started cheering, Yankumi declared, “Of course!” and slapped him on the back so hard he nearly fell over, and Minoru burst into tears as Tetsu patted his back comfortingly.

Once he had his breath back (he’d forgotten how strong Yankumi was), Shin shook his head and confided, “They couldn’t bear to clean out your room, so everything is still there.”

“I’d only be staying for a year.” Reita told him, then jumped a little as Kuroda (gently) put his hand on his shoulder.

“Stay as long as you like, Saiga Reita. We never turn family away.”

And because he could find no words to say, Reita simply bowed deeply.

Yankumi insisted that he hold Nanako before he left, and completely ignored his protests that he had actually already held her earlier in the day.

Her mood improved from a full stomach and a good nap, Nanako permitted Reita to hold her with only a minor amount of glaring.

“You know, if you keep frowning, your face is going to get stuck like that.” He told her.

Nanako’s eyebrows shot up, and Reita laughed a little. As she grasped his finger again, Reita regarded her for a moment, then remarked, “You know what, Nanako? You make a pretty good wingbaby.”

Nanako thought about that for a moment, then said, “Ah!” in a tone that he took to mean she couldn’t agree more.

And as he stood there, he realized that not only did he like his life, but for the first time in his memory, he was absolutely certain that it was only going to get better.

 


End file.
